Mercury and Argus
Hendrik II Reydams (fl. 1669 – d. 1719)
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1670 - circa 1682
Materials
Tapestry, wool, silk, metal thread and cotton.
Measurements
3060 x 1930 mm
Place of origin
Brussels
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent (Accredited Museum)
NT 130082.5
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, Mercury and Argus from a set of Stories from Ovid, Hendrik II Reydams, Brussels, c. 1670-1682. Mercury, with a winged helmet and a caduceus on the ground beside him, plays his pipes to lull Argus to sleep. The setting is a wooded landscape. Mercury was sent by Zeus to free the nymph Io, who had been transformed into a white heifer and was being guarded by the giant Argus. Mercury lulled Argus to sleep and then killed him with a stone. The borders are of fruit, leaves and birds on a brown ground. The tapestry is one of six with stories from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ made in Brussels by Hendrik II Reydams, whose signature appears on most of the set along with the mark of the city. The tapestries may be the ‘6 peces of Tapestry Storys out of Ovid out of ye ante Chamber to the Rich bed Chamber’, listed among a load of goods ‘Caried from [?Copt]hall to Knowle out of ye Qu[en]es C[?hamber]’ on 13 December 1700. This indicates that the tapestries may have among the goods taken as perquisites by the 6th Earl of Dorset from Queen Mary’s apartments at Whitehall after her death in 1695.
Credit line
Knole, The Sackville Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
On lower galloon: two ‘B’s either side of a red shield (mark of the city of Brussels) On lower galloon: ‘H REYDAMS’
Makers and roles
Hendrik II Reydams (fl. 1669 – d. 1719), workshop