The History of Caesar Augustus (composite of fragments)
Jan Frans Cornelissen (d.1678)
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1665 - circa 1675
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7½ warps per cm
Measurements
387 x 600 cm
Place of origin
Antwerp
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1129587.1
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7½ warps per cm, The History of Caesar Augustus (composite of fragments) from a set of two of The History of Caesar Augustus, Jan Frans Cornelissen after a design attributed to Justus van Egmont, c. 1665-1675. Tapestry composed of at least fifteen fragments of varying sizes joined together without attention to subject. Spaces left for fireplace, door and window above. Main portions show soldiers on a monumental scale, a large plinth in centre with Victory on top. Horses with banners to right. On right side a Roman dignitary and a soldier clasping an urn. Various components in border include vases, garlands, female figure holding a bay branch, empty cartouche on centre top.
Full description
The fragments that make up this tapestry come from three different scenes from the ‘History of Caesar Augustus’. The large piece filling the upper left and centre comes from ‘Augustus Conferring the Laurel Wreath on Tiberius’, of which there is a more complete example in the National Trust’s collection at Cotehele House (no. 348293.2). The kneeling figure at the lower left comes from ‘Cleopatra before Augustus’, and the sections at the upper right and lower right come from the top right and the bottom left of ‘The Liberality of Augustus towards his Soldiers’. The section of landscape over the fireplace has been turned upside down, and includes part of an upper border (now at the bottom) and some foliage from an unidentified scene. The two tapestries at Hardwick are the remains of a larger set telling the History of Caesar Augustus. One tapestry represents a complete scene, ‘The Battle between the Romans and the Germans’, and the other is a composite of fragments from three different scenes, ‘Augustus Conferring the Laurel Wreath on Tiberius’, ‘The Liberality of Augustus towards his Soldiers’ and ‘Cleopatra before Augustus’. Caesar Augustus was the first Emperor of Rome from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, he was the great nephew and heir of Julius Caesar whose name he adopted. After defeating first the murderers of Julius Caesar, and then his ally Mark Antony, from 31 BC he was effectively sole ruler of Rome. In 27 BC he established the Principate and assumed the role of Emperor, taking the name Augustus which was used by all subsequent Roman Emperors. Caesar Augustus based his extensive personal power on the outward traditions and forms of the old Roman Republic, but he would never restore the Republic’s democratic liberties which he believed had led to the infighting of the last two generations. His reign saw a large programme of social reform and reconstruction, the creation of Rome’s first standing army (which was under the Emperor’s personal control), and the consolidation of the boundaries of the Empire after lengthy conflict in Germany. Augustus was a patron of poets such as Horace and Virgil, and literature and the arts flourished under his rule. The borders on the tapestries at Hardwick are found on most known weavings of the ‘Caesar Augustus’ series. The side borders include full-length bronze figures of Peace, holding an olive branch, and Victory, holding a laurel wreath and a pole with a red flag inscribed ‘SPQR’ for Senatus Populusque Romanum’ (‘The Senate and the People of Rome’), the motto of the city of Rome. Above are military trophies, and at the top Imperial eagles in laurel wreaths with plaques inscribed ‘PAX AVG’ for ‘Pax Augusti’ (‘The Peace of Augustus’) and ‘VIC AVG’ for ‘Victoria Augusti’ (‘The Victory of Augustus’). Both abbreviations were frequently used on Roman Imperial coins. The ‘Caesar Augustus’ tapestries were woven in the Antwerp workshop of Jan Frans Cornelissen (fl. 1659 – d. 1678). The records of the art dealers the Forchoudts contain references to this set in their correspondence with Cornelissen from 1669 onwards (Denucé 1931, pp. 112-113). On Cornelissen’s death in 1678 his workshop stock and tapestry cartoons passed to his relative Michiel Wauters, and when Wauters died the following year to his daughter Maria Anna Wauters (d. 1703). Maria Anna continued to weave tapestries from the ‘Caesar Augustus’ cartoons, and her correspondence with the branch of the Forchoudt firm in Vienna contains references to ‘Caesar Augustus’ tapestries in 1685 and 1688. The tapestries at Hardwick can be securely attributed to Cornelissen, as they are recorded in an inventory in 1675 and were therefore woven during his lifetime (see below). There is no evidence as to the designer of the ‘Caesar Augustus’ series, but they have been attributed on stylistic grounds to Justus van Egmont (Forti-Grazzini 1994, p. 342). It is probable that the designs were executed in 1659-60, as Cornelissen is recorded commissioning a series of ‘Caesar Augustus’ cartoons on 31 March 1659 – although the designer is not named (Crick-Kuntziger 1950, p. 16). Numerous examples of tapestries from the series survive, both in Britain, where they seem to have been especially popular, and elsewhere in Europe. The only complete set of eight is in the Austrian State collection, and includes the following subjects: ‘Azia reading the will of Julius Caesar to her son Caesar Augustus’; ‘Octavia reconciling Augustus and Mark Anthony’; Cleopatra before Caesar Augustus’; ‘Battle between the Romans and the Germans’; ‘Augustus conferring the Laurel Wreath on Tiberius’; ‘The Liberality of Augustus to his Soldiers’; ‘Sacrifice to the Unknown God’; and ‘The Vestals giving the Will of Augustus to the Senate’ (Birk 1883-4, part 2, p. 189). The set in Vienna has borders identical to a ‘Numa Pompilius’ tapestry in the National Trust’s collection at Cotehele, also made by either Jan Frans Cornelissen or Maria Anna Wauters (no. 348295). All the other known versions of the ‘Caesar Augustus’ series have the ‘PAX AVG / VIC AUG’ borders found on the Hardwick tapestries (Forti-Grazzini 1994, pp. 341-2). Other sets recorded in England include two tapestries in the National Trust’s collection at Cohetele, ‘Caesar Augustus Conferring the Laurel Wreath on Tiberius’ and the ‘Sacrifice to the Unknown God’ (nos. 348293.1, 2), two panels at Boughton House (Hefford 1992, p. 100), and at least four other partial sets, whose existence attests to the popularity of the subject in this country, and to the extensive English market catered to by Antwerp tapestry producers in the late seventeenth century (Marillier 1930, pp. 15-17). The tapestries at Hardwick are almost certainly the remains of a set described as ‘Augustus Caesar’ that was recorded at Roehampton House, the London residence of Christian Bruce, Dowager Countess of Devonshire (1595-1675), after her death in 1675: In the Winter Drawing roome 4 peeces of Augustus Caesar 12 foot ½ . . . 17 yds ¾ In her hons Bedchamber 4 peeces of Augustus Caesar 12 foot . . . . 20 yds This inventory indicates that the Cavendish family originally owned a complete set of eight Caesar Augustus tapestries, and also allows those that survive to be dated to before 1675. It is not known when the tapestries were cut up and installed in their present positions but it was probably during the early nineteenth century under the 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858), who moved and altered a number of old tapestries at Hardwick. The Duke’s Room, where the tapestries now hang, was used by him. (Helen Wyld, 2013)
Provenance
Recorded at Roehampton House in the posthumous inventory of Christian, Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire (1595-1675); 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)
Marks and inscriptions
Plaque on section of border to left of fireplace, upside down: P[A]X AVG On plaque at top of left hand border: PAX AVG On plaque at top of right hand border: VIC AVG
Makers and roles
Jan Frans Cornelissen (d.1678), workshop Justus van Egmont (Leyden 1601 - Antwerp 1674), designer
References
Delmarcel, 1999: Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt 1999 Forti-Grazzini, 1994: Nello Forti-Grazzini, Gli Arazzi (Il patrimonio artistico del Quirinale), 2 vols., Rome 1994 Hefford, 1992: Wendy Hefford, 'Ralph Montagu's Tapestries', in Tessa Murdoch (ed.), Boughton House, the English Versailles, London 1992 Hefford, 1991: Wendy Hefford, The Cotehele Tapestries, The National Trust, 1991 (n.p.) Crick-Kuntziger, 1950: Marthe Crick-Kuntziger, ‘La Tenture de l’Histoire de Zenobie, reine de Palmyre’, Bulletin des Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, vol. IV, no. 22 (1950), pp. 11-26 Denucé, 1931: Jean Denucé, Kunstuitvoer in de 17e eeuw te Antwerpen: de firma Forchoudt, Antwerp 1931 Marillier, 1930: Henry C Marillier, English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century, London 1930 Birk, 1883-4: Ernst Ritter von Birk, ‘Inventar der im Besitze des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses befindlichen Niederländer Tapeten und Gobelins’, in Jahrbuch des kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 1 (1883) and 2 (1884), pp.167-220