Putti Pulling a Scallop Shell Boat
Hatton Garden
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1678
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm
Measurements
2.40 m (H); 3.38 m (W)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1129461.2
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm, Putti Pulling a Scallop Shell Boat from a set of four Polidoros, Francis Poyntz, after a design by Polidoro da Caravaggio and Francis Cleyn, c. 1678. In the foreground four boys or putti, one of them winged, pull on a rope which is attached to a scallop-shell boat to the right. Another putto rides in the boat holding ropes attached to the ends of a small sail. To the left a boy in a red loincloth coils the end of the rope, and another stands leaning on a barrel, directing the proceedings. In the background there is a hilly landscape with a small boy sitting under a tree playing a pipe and a lion in the distance. The tapestry was woven without borders and has a narrow red galloon around all four sides.
Full description
Three of the four tapestries at Hardwick show putti engaged in childish activities: playing with goats, playing the games of croquet and 'high cockalorum', and playing in a makeshift boat made from a shell. In the fourth, a nymph and two satrys sit in a boat. All four of the designs derive from paintings by Polidoro Caldarà da Caravaggio (c. 1499-c.1543) – hence the name of the series, the 'Polidoros'. Polidoro's original paintings are part of a set of nine narrow panels that probably once decorated a small room, and are dated to c. 1523-5 (Shearman 1983, pp. 196-9). The series included six narrow, frieze-like compositions of playing putti, nymphs and satrys which are the main basis of the tapestry series, and three larger panels of 'Psyche Abandoned', 'Psyche Discovers Cupid' and 'The Reception of Psyche in Olympus'. The three Psyche scenes represent the concluding episode of each of the three chapters in the story of Cupid and Psyche told in Apuleius's 'The Golden Ass'. Shearman has suggested that the putto-friezes pick up the 'amor vincit omnia' theme of the Psyche story, and compares them to the putti in Raphael's Psyche Loggia at the Villa Farnesina (1518). The 'Polidoro' tapestries may be intended to express a similar theme, although with no narrative association as the 'Psyche' scenes were not copied for the tapestry series. Polidoro was known for his all'antica renderings of putti and classical figures, and the narrow-frieze-like compositions of his original paintings with their blank backgrounds recall Roman painted decoration. Polidoro's putti are also indebted to his master Raphael, whose Farnesina Loggia has already been mentioned, and who represented putti playing croquet in the Vatican Logge (1518-19), a project that Polidoro himself worked on. The nine painted panels that the Hardwick tapestries are based on were bought by Charles I from William Frizzel in 1637, and were recorded hanging in the Privy Lodgings at Whitehall by Van der Doort (Millar 1958-60, pp. 17-22, 42, 181, 202). At some time in the late 1630s or early 1640s Francis Cleyn (d. 1658), the Danish artist who was designer to the Mortlake tapestry workshop, made copies of some of the panels adding landscape backgrounds and transformed them into rectangular scenes, possibly intending them as models for tapestry. Three drawings by Cleyn have recently been discovered (Howarth 2011, pp. 438-9), their compositions very similar to three of the Hardwick tapestries, down to the details of the landscape backgrounds and numerous alterations to the figures. For a full account of the genesis of the designs, including a related set of paintings by Cleyn at Ham House (nos. 1140150-1140154) and related prints made by Cleyn in the 1640s, see Wyld forthcoming a. Although the 'Polidoro' tapestries are based on Cleyn's drawings, they were not woven during his lifetime. The tapestries at Hardwick probably date from the 1670s. One of them is signed 'F.P. HATTON. GARDEN', with a white shield with a red cross, the mark originally used at Mortlake in the 1620s but adopted by other London workshops after 1660. The initials 'FP' are those of Francis Poyntz (d. 1684), Yeoman Arrasworker to Charles II from 1660, who had his workshop in Hatton Garden from at least 1678 (Thomson 1973, p. 356). A payment of £100 was made by the Earl of Devonshire 'For Pointz's hangings' with an addition of £27 for 'old debt' in the half year ending Michaelmas 1678 (Chatsworth House Archive, Brief Day Book, 1675-1682), which probably referred to the 'Polidoro' tapestries as there are no other tapestries by Poyntz in the collections at Hardwick or Chatsworth today. 'Polidore' or 'Polidoro' tapestries were first mentioned in 1668, when Francis Poyntz was making a set for Charles II (Thomson 1973, p. 355). A set of five was installed at Ham House during the 1670s (see Wyld forthcoming a), and in 1675 the collection of the Duke of Ormonde at Dunmore included "five fine peeces of English hangings, the story of Palidore, nine foote deepe. for ye Drawing Room." (Graves 1852). Aside from the set of 'Polidoros' at Hardwick only four further individual tapestries are known to survive. A version of 'Nymph and Satyrs in a Boat' with a border of winding acanthus leaves and flowers and a blue cartouche in the upper centre was on the German art market in the 1920s (Göbel 1923, ) and in a private collection in Turin in 1992 (Franses archive). A version of 'Putti Pulling a Cockle Shell Boat' with no borders was sold at Christie's South Kensington, 12 June 2002, lot 390 (the same tapestry was reproduced in Marillier 1930, plate 9). A tapestry of 'Putti Playing with Swans', a subject that does not appear at Hardwick but which is also derived from the Royal Collection pictures by Polidoro, is in the Jacob Epstein Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art (unpublished; Inv. 1951.136). A fragment with a boy riding a dolphin and two boys pouring water, taken from two different paintings in Polidoro's series, is recorded by Marillier (Marillier Tapestry Archive). In 1894 the Rev. Charles Kerry saw three of the 'Polidoro' tapestries in the Duke's Room at Hardwick, describing them as 'Children with goats', 'Chariot of nautilis shell drawn towards the shore' and 'Game with ball and mallet' (Kerry 1894, p. 116). The tapestries were probably in place in 1844 when the 6th Duke noted of this room that "some good tapestry make it look warm and comfortable" (Devonshire 1844, p. 214). In 1944 Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire recounted that "The Hatton Garden 'Playing Children' were hung here by the 6th Duke but my Duke [the 9th Duke] did not like tapestry in his room and I was glad to use it on the stairs in place of the Mortlake Hunters and Dancers – sent back to Chatsworth" (Devonshire 1944). In 1945 Duchess Evelyn noted that parts of the set had been "hacked up" and used to fill in holes in the Mortlake 'Hero and Leander' set lower down on the staircase (Devonshire 1945). The tapestries have not moved from the half landing on the main staircase since Duchess Evelyn's time. (Helen Wyld, 2011)
Provenance
Probably made for William Cavendish, Third Earl of Devonshire, c. 1678; thence by descent to Andrew, 11th Duke of Devonshire (1920-2004); acquired through the National Land Fund in 1956 and transferred to the National Trust in 1959.
Credit line
Hardwick Hall, The Devonshire Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1959)
Makers and roles
Hatton Garden , workshop Francis Poyntz (fl. 1660 - d. 1684), workshop after Polidoro da Caravaggio (Caravaggio c.1497 - Messina c.1543), designer after Francis Clein [also Cleyn] (Rostock 1582 – London 1658), designer
References
Wyld, 2013 a: Helen Wyld, 'Seventeenth-century Tapestries at Ham House', in Christopher Rowell (ed.), Ham House: 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, New Haven and London 2013, pp. 178-93 Howarth, 2011: David Howarth, 'The Southampton Album: A Newly Discovered Collection of Drawings by Francis Cleyn the Elder and His Associates', Master Drawings, vol. 49, no. 4 (Winter 2011), pp. 435-78 Hefford, 2007: Wendy Hefford, ‘The Mortlake Manufactory, 1619-49’, in Thomas Campbell (ed.), Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2007, pp. 171-89 Davy-Notter and Mathias, 1988: Annick Davy-Notter and Martine Mathias, Jeux et Divertissements: Tapisseries du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, Arras 1988 Shearman 1983 John Shearman, The Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge, 1983 Jackson-Stops 1985: Gervase Jackson-Stops (ed.), The Treasure Houses of Britain: five hundred years of private patronage and art collecting, exh. cat. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, New Haven and London 1985 Thornton and Tomlin, Peter Thornton, and Maurice Tomlin. “Franz Cleyn at Ham House.” National Trust Studies (1980): pp.21-34. Clifford, 1976: Timothy Clifford, 'Polidoro and English Design', The Connoisseur, vol. CXCII, no. 774 (August 1976), pp. 282-291 Thomson, 1973: W G Thomson, A History of Tapestry from the Earliest Times until the Present Day, 3rd edition, Wakefield 1973 Millar, 1972: Oliver Millar (ed.), ‘The Inventories and Valuations of the King’s Goods 1649-1651’, The Forty-Third Volume of the Walpole Society, 1972 Opie, 1969: Iona and Peter Opie, Children’s Games in Street and Playground: chasing, catching, seeking, hunting, racing, duelling, exerting, daring, guessing, acting, pretending, Oxford 1969 Millar, 1958-60: Oliver Millar, ed., ‘Abraham van der Doort’s Catalogue of the Collections of Charles I’, The Walpole Society, vol. XXXVII, 1958-60 Marillier, 1930: Henry C Marillier, English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century, London 1930 Göbel, 1923: Heinrich Göbel, Die Niederlande, vol. 1 of Wandteppiche, 2 vols., Berlin 1923 Kerry, 1894: Rev. Charles Kerry, 'Derbyshire tapestry', Derbyshire Archaeological Society Journal, 1894 A T Watson, Extracts from the General Warrants of the Lord Chamberlain's Department concerning the furnishing of royal palaces, the ordering of public receptions and court theatricals in the period 1628-1760, c. 1890. National Art Library, V&A Graves, 1852: The Rev. James Graves, 'Ancient Tapestry at Kilkenny Castle', Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, vol. 2, part 1 (1852), pp. 3-9 Devonshire, 1844: William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, Handbook of Hardwick and Chatsworth, London, 1844