Summary

Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 ½ warps per cm, The Golden Idol from a set of the Story of Nebuchadnezzar, Thomas Poyntz, London, c. 1678-1682. The scene is a marble platform with a balustrade and staircase leading down on the left, and a backdrop of a landscape with buildings. King Nebuchadnezzar stands to the left of the platform gesturing with his sceptre towards a golden statue which stands in the landscape beyond. He wears a gold breastplate and tunic, a blue turban with a huge jewel surmounted by a golden crown, and a red cloak which is carried by a page standing behind him. At the far left an elderly man wearing a plumed crown and an ermine-trimmed cloak approaches, and to his right in the foreground a soldier stands with his back to us, resting his foot on a lead ball which is attached by a chain to the foot of a monkey which stands in the centre foreground. The monkey reaches with one paw to a fruited bough carried by a dwarf who climbs the steps towards the king, wearing a silver doublet and gold pantaloons and hose and carrying a parrot on his shoulder. On the right two women approach the king, one kneeling to adjust the headdress of a child holding a censer, the other standing and carrying a naked infant, and on the far right a soldier wearing a plumed helmet approaches, his hands held out before him. In the landscape beyond the marble platform a crowd of people gather to pay homage to the golden statue, and two women carrying wreaths of flowers descend the steps to join them. Beyond, in the distance, a temple-like building filled with flames and emitting clouds of smoke represents the fiery furnace. The side borders are composed of figure in ‘Indian’ dress, squirrels and plants on a light brown ground. In the upper border there are hunting scenes. The tapestry was woven without a lower border. In the lower right a small strip with the initials ‘T P’ either side of a white shield bearing a red cross. This strip has been sewn onto the main field but was presumably originally part of the lower galloon of the tapestry.

Full description

This is the third tapestry in the narrative sequence. King Nebuchadnezzar dreamt of a great statue whose head was made of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, lower legs of iron and feet of clay, and the statue was broken into pieces. Daniel interpreted this dream, saying the head of gold represented Nebuchadnezzar, and that his great kingdom would be followed by lesser ones, represented by the other materials. Nebuchadnezzar was awed by Daniel’s prophecy and rewarded him with high office; he also agreed to Daniel’s request that his brothers Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (or Shadrach, Mesach and Abed-nego as they were called by the Babylonians) be given control of the affairs of the province of Babylon, and that Daniel himself “be sat in the gate of the king” (Daniel 2.31-49). Nebuchadnezzar set up a great image of gold in the plain of Dura in Babylon. He commanded all his princes, governors and other officials to come and venerate the idol, and a herald told them that when they heard the sound of many instruments playing they should all fall down and worship the image. The main part of the tapestry represents Nebuchadnezzar ordering his people to worship the image; the women and children to the right of him are clearly on their way to do so, and in the background figures play trumpets and viols, while a procession approaches the image. The figure in an ermine-lined cloak on the far left probably represents one of the Chaldeans, who approached the King and told him that “certain Jews” were not obeying his command, and were not worshipping the golden image he had set up: these were none other than Daniel’s brothers Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. Nebuchadnezzar punished the brothers by having them thrown into a furnace, the scene in the background of the tapestry. This is also the subject of the next tapestry in the sequence, ‘The Fiery Furnace’ (130090.5). The dwarf and monkey in the middle of the tapestry do not appear in the biblical account and their significance is unclear. The dwarf may have been inspired by a dwarf in a print by Adriaen Collaert representing Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The small boy in the right foreground resembles a boy at the head of another devotional procession in a tapestry of ‘Niobe’s Pride’ from a series of ‘Diana’ tapestries made by François Spiering in Delft between 1590 and 1610, an example of which survives at Knole. The five tapestries show scenes from the story of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, told in the Book of Daniel, chapters 1-5. Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, besieged Jerusalem and defeated Jehoiakim, the King of Judah, and his triumphant return is the subject of the first tapestry in the series, 130090.4. Nebuchadnezzar decided to take the brightest and most cunning of the children of Judah to be brought up in his palace, so that they might be taught the tongue of the high priests, the Chaldeans. Among the children taken were Daniel and his brothers Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel first came to the attention of King Nebuchadnezzar as a young man, when the king’s prophets had been unable to guess the meaning of his dreams. Daniel not only described the dreams, he was able to interpret their meaning; Nebuchadnezzar was awed by Daniel’s prophecy, and rewarded him richly. Later Daniel interpreted a second dream, foretelling that Nebuchadnezzar would be made to live with the beasts of the field if he did not mend his ways; this dream is the subject of the second tapestry in the series (130090.2). The third tapestry shows the Golden Idol which Nebuchadnezzar set up, ordering everyone to pay homage to it; this scene also includes in the background Nebuchadnezzar’s brutal punishment of Daniel’s brothers for refusing to worship the idol, and their miraculous escape from the fiery furnace (130090.3). The fourth tapestry shows Nebuchadnezzar’s brothers about to be thrown into the furnace (130090.4). The final tapestry represents the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy, and shows Nebuchadnezzar being struck down by the word of God, avian claws and feathers growing from his hands and arms (130090.1). The borders of the tapestries are decorated with leaves and plants on a light brown ground. At each side are figures in ‘Indian’ dress – bare-chested and wearing a turban, a skirt with coloured fringes and garlands of flowers – carrying pots with fruit trees on their heads. Below these there are red squirrels eating nuts, and above birds fly among branches. Along the upper borders there are hunting scenes with among the leaves and branches, with small figures bows and arrows, dogs, birds, deer, rabbits, goats and foxes. The tapestries are woven without lower borders but have a brown galloon along the lower edge. The designer of the ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ series is not known. Wendy Hefford has noted similarities with a series of the ‘History of Jephtha’ woven in Antwerp in the late seventeenth century, suggesting that the designer may have been Flemish, although there is no direct evidence for this (Hefford 2002, p. 60). ‘Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream’, the first tapestry in the series, shows some similarities to a print by Adriaen Collaert representing the same scene. The dwarf in Collaert’s print is also very similar to the dwarf who appears in the tapestry ‘The Golden Idol’; moreover no dwarf appears in the biblical account. This tapestry includes another intriguing reference, in the form of a small boy bedecked in flowers being led to worship the Golden idol. The pose and attributes of this boy are closely related to a child in a tapestry of ‘Niobe’s Pride’ from a series of the ‘Story of Diana’ designed by Karel van Mander and woven by François Spiering in Delft between c. 1590 and 1610. Van Mander’s tapestry designs are not known to have been engraved, but a version of ‘Niobe’s Pride’ is today at Knole and may have been in the Royal collection in the seventeenth century. Three of the tapestries at Knole are signed in the lower galloon with the initials T P either side of a white shield with a red cross of Saint George. The shield mark was first used at the Mortlake workshop from 1619 but by the later seventeenth century was a more general sign of English manufacture. The initials ‘T P’ are almost certainly those of Thomas Poyntz (d. 1685), an associate and probably a relative of Francis Poyntz, Yeoman Arrasworker to Charles II from 1661 until his death in 1684. Thomas Poyntz seems to have worked with Francis Poyntz in the 1670s and 1680s, and is first recorded in 1678 when the two men jointly signed a petition asking for concessions for immigrant catholic tapestry weavers in England (Thomson 1973, pp. 357-8). Thomas does not appear in Francis Poyntz’s will of 1684 which left his Hatton garden workshop in the care of a doctor friend, asking him to provide for his children who were minors (National Archives, Prob/11/379). Despite this Thomas appears to have been involved in the continuation of Francis’s workshop until his own death in 1686. He sold a set of tapestries of the ‘Months’ to the King in 1686, and his signature appears, amongst others, on a series of tapestries of the Battle of Solebay, woven in or after 1683, and a set of Eucharist tapestries at Ugbrook Park, Devon (Thomson 1973, pp. 358-9; Hefford 1988, p. 42). In addition to the set at Knole three other weavings of the ‘Story of Nebuchadnezzar’ are known. Each set has different borders, and there are also slight variations in the designs, including the omission or addition of figures, and some cases where a figure from one scene is moved to another scene in the set. There are also variations in the size of individual panels. The set at Knole with Thomas Poyntz’s signature is of the finest quality, and gilt-metal thread is used in large quantities throughout the main fields. Parts of a second set with gold thread, consisting of three known subjects, ‘The Fiery Furnace’, ‘Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream’ and ‘Nebuchadnezzar Transformed into a Beast’, has surfaced on the art market at various points during the twentieth century, and one panel is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A 1984). This series has a border design of scrollwork on a pale ground and an as yet unidentified monogram and ducal coronet at the centre of each horizontal border. At Glamis Castle, Angus a third set survives, containing the same five scenes as at Knole, although one, ‘Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream’, has been cut in half horizontally and the lower half is missing. This set is woven in wool and silk with a narrow acanthus-leaf border imitating a carved picture frame. Although some of the original galloons survive on this set, there is no signature (Scott-Moncrieff 1950). A fourth set is in the National Trust’s collection at Powis Castle (no. 1181084), and includes four tapestries, all versions of subjects seen at Knole – only ‘The Fiery Furnace’ is missing. The Powis set has no upper or lower borders but has side borders with putti and columns. It is not signed and has no gold thread. An inventory of Knole in 1682 includes ‘Five Pieces of Rich Tapestry hangings wth gould wrought in it wth the History of Nebuchadnezzar’ in ‘The Roome going into the Drawing Roome’ (Centre for Kentish Studies, document number U269 T71/3). The presence of the tapestries at Knole as early as 1682 indicates that they were not among the goods received by the 6th Earl of Dorset as perquisites from the Royal Palaces in the 1690s, as has sometimes been stated. In 1706 the tapestries were listed in the Wardrobe at Knole (Centre for Kentish Studies, document number U269 E79/2). The set was probably installed in its present location the King’s Room by the 1st Duke in 1723-4, when the room was remodelled for the 1st Duke of Dorset by Mark Antony Hauduroy. (Helen Wyld, 2013)