Summary

Tapestry, wool and silk, 7½ warps per cm, Battle between the Romans and the Germans 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. A battle between two groups of soldiers, the Germans emerging from a wood on the left and the Romans on the right. In the foreground a German soldier, wearing a helmet perhaps stolen from a dead Roman, and carrying a sword and shield, engages in combat with a Roman who wears armour, chainmail and a helmet, and is also armed with a sword and shield. Further back on the right are the Roman soldiers all similarly dressed in armour and helmets and carrying swords, lances and shields. On the left the Germans are dressed in simple tunics and carry a variety of weapons: one man with wild hair and a beard wields a flail, a female warrior raises a large stone above her head, and a second woman pushes her baby in the face of a Roman soldier. One of the German fighters lies dead on the ground. There are trees in the background on the left and a horse at the top right. There are borders with swags of fruit either side of a cartouche at the top, figures of Peace and Victory at each side above plinths adorned with putti, and sea monsters either side of a cartouche at the bottom. The tapestry has been cut and re-joined vertically down the centre, and is extremely dirty and blackened.

Full description

One of Augustus’s policies was to make the Roman Empire safe from barbarians such as the Germanic tribes beyond the borders, and he embarked on an extensive campaign to expand the Imperial frontiers in Germania. Augustus himself was not present during this campaign, and is not represented in the tapestry. It is not clear which exact episode is being represented: whether a notable victory such as the one that allowed Augustus to drive back various tribes across the Elbe, or a defeat such as the disastrous ambush that befell the legion of Lollio (both episodes recounted by Suetonius, ‘Lives of the Twelve Caesars’). The depiction of the German troops with wild hair and beards, women fighting alongside men and an odd collection of weapons reflects the frequent descriptions of the Germanic peoples by Roman writers as barbaric and uncivilised. The inclusion of a flail, an agricultural tool modified to be used as a weapon and consisting of a ball attached to a stick by a chain, perhaps has a more recent point of reference as such weapons were often used by German peasant fighters in the Medieval period. 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)