The Boy Moses Removing Pharaoh's Crown (fragment)
Brussels
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1545 - circa 1560
Materials
Wool, silk, cotton, hessian, 6 warps per cm
Measurements
3200 x 1780 mm
Place of origin
Belgium
Order this imageCollection
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
NT 135705
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 6 warps per cm, The Boy Moses Removing Pharaoh's Crown (fragment) from a set of two of the Story of Moses, Brussels, c. 1545-1560. To the left a worried-looking man with red hair gestures with both hands and turns his head to talk to a man wearing a red cloth hat. Behind them two more men gesture and look at one another. To the right a woman in a blue dress kneels on a broad marble step, and in the background are stone columns and a landscape beyond. At the bottom there is a horizontal strip of border with a small naked boy amidst bunches of fruit and leaves around a central palm trunk. An additional 20 cm section of border has been folded in on the left hand side. In some areas the surface of the tapestry has been retouched with paint.
Full description
'The Boy Moses Removing Pharaoh's Crown' is a fragment from a much larger tapestry. An example of the complete scene is in the Cathedral of La Seo in Zaragoza (Torra de Arana et al. 1985, series 16). The main action takes place to the right of the figures in the Coughton fragment. The kneeling woman is Pharaoh's daughter, Moses's adoptive mother, who is watching in horror as Moses reaches up to remove Pharaoh's crown. The two men on the left of the tapestry are Pharaoh's counsellors or soothsayers, the foreground man possibly intended for Jethro the Midianite priest. In the original design Pharaoh is seated on a throne on a raised marble dais and there are further onlookers on the right hand side. The tapestry in Zaragoza has wide borders with playing children amongst bunches of fruit and leaves around a central palm branch, identical to the section of border that survives at the bottom of the Coughton tapestry. The story of Moses removing Pharaoh's Crown does not appear in the Old Testament. Instead it is told in 'Midrash' texts, Jewish exegeses which interpret and expand upon many Biblical stories. Moses was brought up at Pharaoh's Palace by Pharaoh's daughter, who had found him abandoned as a baby. At the age of three Moses was a large child. One day, sitting with Pharaoh his counsellors, Moses removed the crown from Pharaoh's head and put in on his own. The king's advisers were shocked and advised Pharaoh to kill Moses, who they predicted would destroy Egypt and liberate the Israelites. However the Midianite priest Jethro said that Moses should be tested, to see whether he had enough sense to intentionally remove the crown of Pharaoh. Moses was offered a piece of gold and a glowing coal and asked to choose between them. The angel Gabriel guided him to the coal which he took and put in his mouth. The coal burned his tongue giving him a stutter, but it saved him from being killed by Pharaoh (Singer 1901-1906, vol. 9, pp. 47-8). The life of Moses, viewed as a major prophet in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, is told in a number of different sources. He is the subject of the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deutoronomy, and further details of his life are give in Rabbinical literature, including the story of 'The Boy Moses Removing Pharaoh's Crown' at Coughton. The key events from Moses's life are also related in the Qu'ran. The two 'Story of Moses' tapestries at Coughton come from a larger series. A set of eight 'Moses' tapestries including the same designs as the two at Coughton is in the collection of the Cathedral of the Saviour, known as La Seo, Zaragoza. The eight scenes are: 1. The Finding of Moses; 2. Moses is Entrusted to his own Mother; 3. Moses is Returned to Pharaoh's Daughter (as at Coughton); 4. The Boy Moses Removes Pharaoh's Crown (as at Coughton); 5. The Boy Moses Tramples Pharaoh's Crown; 6. Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro; 7. Moses Introduced to Jethro by one of his Daughters; 8. Moses on Mount Horeb. The two tapestries at Coughton were probably made in Brussels in the middle of the sixteenth century. They are similar in quality to the related 'Moses' set at Zaragoza, which bears the mark of the city of Brussels and the signature of an unknown weaver. The appearance on the Brussels mark allows the Zaragoza set to be dated to after 1544, when an edict dictating the use of such marks came into force. (Helen Wyld, 2011)
Provenance
Purchased by the National Trust by private treaty sale in 2005.
Credit line
Coughton Court, the Throckmorton Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Brussels , workshop
References
Torra de Arana et al., 1985: Eduardo Torra de Arana, Antero Hombria Tortajada and Tomás Domingo Pérez, Los Tapices de la Seo de Zaragoza, Aragon 1985 Monserrat and Abizanda, 1917: José M.a Monserrat and Manuel Abizanda, Los Tapices de Zaragoza, Zaragoza 1917 Singer, 1901-1906: Isidore Singer et al. (eds.), The Jewish encyclopedia : a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times to the present day, 12 vols., New York and London 1901-1906