Summary

Tapestry, wool and silk, 6½ warps per cm, Tobias Captures the Fish from a set of three of the Story of Tobias, Philip Wauters, Antwerp, after a design attributed to Daniel Janssens, c. 1670-1679. Tobias, wearing a red cloak, kneels by a river and grasps the jaws of a large fish that emerges from the water. He looks over his shoulder at the angel who sits under a tree beside him gesturing encouragingly. Tobias's small dog is curled up at the angel's feet. The tapestry has a narrow border with an egg-and-dart pattern woven in imitation of a carved and gilded picture frame. The monogram of Philip Wauters appears on the left hand galloon. The tapestry is set into a wide border of coarse dark blue hessian.

Full description

'Tobias Captures the Fish' is the first tapestry in the 'Story of Tobias' set at Hardwick. The young Tobias set off to collect some money belonging to his father from Gabael son of Gabrias at Rages in Media. He took with him a companion who claimed to be his kinsman, but who was in fact the angel Raphael. They stopped for the night by the river Tigris and Tobias went down to the water to wash. A great fish leaped out and would have devoured him. The angel told him to take the fish, which he did. The angel instructed Tobias to open up the fish and keep the heart, liver and gall, and they roasted and ate the rest. Later when Tobias asked why he had kept parts of the fish, the angel told him that if they were troubled by an evil spirit, after making a fire of the liver and heart they would be free; and that the gall was useful as a cure for those who had whiteness in their eyes (Tobit, 6.1-8). Later after Tobias married Sarah, his cousin, he burned the heart and liver of the fish to chase away the evil spirit that had killed her seven previous husbands (Tobit, 8). When he returned home, he anointed the eyes of his father Tobit with the gall, and cured his blindness (Tobit, 11). The three tapestries at Hardwick are part of a larger series telling the story of Tobias. The story is told in the Book of Tobit, regarded as a canonical part of the Old Testament by the catholic religion but considered apocryphal by Protestants. Tobit was an Israelite of the Tribe of Naphthali who was exiled from Nineveh after he tried to provide decent burials for the Israelites killed by King Sennacherib. After Sennacherib died he returned to Nineveh. On hearing of a man strangled in the street Tobit went out to bury him, and that night slept outside as he was unclean. He slept by a wall where sparrows had their nest, and their droppings fell in his eyes and blinded him. Tobit despaired and prayed for death. Meanwhile in distant Media the young woman Sarah was also in despair, as she had taken seven husbands and each had been killed by an evil spirit before consummating the marriage. Tobit, entering old age, decided to send his son, Tobias, to Media to collect some money that he had deposited with a kinsman there. Tobias met the angel Raphael who agreed to accompany him on his journey, saying he was Tobias's kinsman. The two set off with Tobias's dog. Raphael guided Tobias on his journey, instructing him to catch the large fish that leaped out of the Tigris (see 'Tobias Captures the Fish', 1129597.1). When they reached Media the angel brought Tobias to the house of Raguel, Tobias's cousin. Raguel happily gave his daughter Sarah (the same who had seen seven husbands die) to Tobias as a wife. The angel instructed Tobias to burn the heart and liver of the fish when he entered the marital chamber, and this chased away the evil spirit that had killed Sarah's other husbands. The spirit is usually characterised as the demon of lust, and the story of Tobias thus stands as an example of the sanctity of marriage. The next day Sarah's father Raguel was surprised and overjoyed to find Tobias still alive, and threw a great marriage feast. Unable to leave the feast Tobias sent the angel to collect his father's money, and finally the three returned to Tobias's home. Their departure from Raguel and his wife Edna is the subject of the second tapestry at Hardwick (1129597.3). When they returned the angel told Tobias to anoint his father's eyes with the gall of the fish, and this cured Tobit's blindness. The angel then revealed himself and returned to heaven, the subject of the final tapestry at Hardwick (1129597.2). Tobit died in old age and Tobias and Sara returned to Media. Sets of six 'Tobias' tapestries are recorded in the documents of the Forchoudt firm who sold the tapestries. The individual subjects known are: 1. Tobit Sleeping Outside by a Wall 2. Tobias Captures the Fish (at Hardwick) 3. Raguel giving Sarah to Tobias 4. Tobias and Sarah Taking Leave of Raguel and Edna (at Hardwick) 5. Tobias Anointing Tobit's Eyes 6. The Departure of the Angel (at Hardwick) The designer of the 'Tobias' series is not recorded, but Wendy Hefford has pointed out that the designs have analogies with a number of other series produced by the Wauters firm in the late seventeenth century including the ‘Seven Liberal Arts’, and the 'Stories from Ovid' examples of which survive in the National Trust's collection at Cotehele (nos. 348258, 348261) (Hefford 1983, p. 109). Documentary evidence allows these designs to be attributed to Daniel Janssens (1636-1682). Originally from Mechelen (or Malines), a city which traditionally specialised in the production of designs for tapestry, Janssens was registered as a master in the city’s painter’s guild in 1660 and later spent ten years in Antwerp, returning to his native town in around 1675. Janssens produced architectural and decorative works as well as tapestry designs (though little of the former survives). One of the tapestries, 'Tobias Captures the Fish', bears the mark of Antwerp tapestry entrepreneur Philip Wauters (fl. 1660 - d. 1679) on its left hand galloon. Philip and his brother Michiel Wauters were the largest tapestry producers in Antwerp in the 1660s and 1670s, and they had an extensive catalogue of subjects at their disposal. A set or 'room' of six Tobias tapestries, 3 ½ ells deep, was among the completed tapestries left in the warehouse of Michiel Wauters when he died in 1679 (Denucé 1932, p. 299). Philip Wauters had died earlier the same year, leaving his stock to his brother. Six cartoons for 'Tobias' tapestries appear in a list of designs belonging to Cornelis de Wael, Michiel Wauters's son in law, in 1687 (Denucé 1936, p. LII). The surviving documents of the Forchoudt firm, an art export company based in Antwerp with offices in all over Europe, reveals much about the activities of the Wauters. Tapestries by Philip Wauters of 'Tobias' appear only once in these records, indicating that this was one of his less popular subjects. Interestingly the 'Tobias' set is mentioned as one of those that can be produced at reduced depth, in what Wauters calls the English manner: "Furthermore I have with me some [tapestries of] small depth, the fashion of England: might well serve small cabinets, being 3½ ells deep each room, consisting of 6 pieces, of which the stories are these, namely Tobias, Hercules, Theseus, those stand ready." (Denucé 1931, p. 200; with thanks to Emile de Bruijn for the translation). This letter shows that certain subjects were aimed specifically at the English market, and that English patrons preferred tapestries of reduced depth which could be hung above panelling or a dado. The 'Tobias' tapestries at Hardwick fit well with this description, each measuring around 2.4 metres in height, almost exactly 3 ½ Flemish Ells (a Flemish Ell measures 68.8 cm). Virtually all the surviving 'Tobias' tapestries from the Wauters workshop have surfaced in collections in England. A number of the Wauters' other tapestry series seem to have been aimed wholly or partly at the English market, and large numbers of their tapestries survive in English collections, including over 30 within the National Trust alone. The signatures of Philip and Michiel Wauters appear so frequently on tapestries in England that one early twentieth-century tapestry historian assumed that they must be English (Marillier 1930). Marillier noted sets of 'Tobias' tapestries at Castle Ashby (with the mark of Philip Wauters), Hagley Hall (a fragment destroyed by fire), Apley Park, Bridgenorth (with the mark of Philip Wauters), and in the sale of the Earl of Fortescue, Christie's, 1 May 1930, lot 154 (Marillier Tapestry Subject Archive). The two last had the same narrow picture-frame borders as the set at Hardwick. There is no record of when the Hardwick 'Tobias' tapestries were acquired, and they may originally have been intended for Chatsworth or one of the Cavendish's London residences rather than Hardwick. There is evidence that the Earl (later 1st Duke) of Devonshire was buying expensive new tapestries directly from Flanders in 1691 so it is plausible that he obtained this more modest set slightly earlier. It is also possible that the tapestries arrived at Hardwick later on. It has been suggested that the 'Tobias' tapestries are identical with the 'Tobie' set recorded in Toby's Chamber in the 1601 inventory of Hardwick, but this is obviously impossible. The first definite record of the set comes in Marillier's notes written in c. 1930 which record all three tapestries in the Gallery End Room at Hardwick (Marillier Tapestry Subject Catalogue). The tapestries were in the same room in 1945-6 when Duchess Evelyn wrote her notes on the house: "The Gallery End Room has become a bathroom – the only possible place for one on this floor. The tapestry is the story of Tobit and the Angel – I rather think it is Hatton Garden – but there is no written mark to be seen – it was probably on an outer border" (Devonshire 1945). Duchess Evelyn guessed that the tapestries were made at Hatton Garden by analogy with the signed 'Polidoro' tapestries made at Francis Poyntz's Hatton Garden workshop that now hang on the staircase at Hardwick, and which are of a similar date (no. 1129461). (Helen Wyld, 2011)