The Adoration of the Magi
probably English
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1580 - circa 1610
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 9-11 warps per cm
Measurements
188 mms (H); 246 mms (W)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Fenton House, London
NT 1449220
Summary
Tapestry, wool, silk and metal thread, 9-11 warps per cm, framed and glazed, The Adoration of the Magi, probably English, c. 1580-1610. The Virgin is seated on the right of the tapestry wearing a blue cloak over a red dress, with the naked Christ child on her lap. The child reaches out his arms to first of the three Kings kneels before him offering a golden vessel (now tarnished), his crown and sceptre lying on the ground beside him. The other two Kings kneel behind. Joseph watches in the background, the ox and ass behind him eating from a manger. In the background on the left is a landscape with two shepherds, and in the sky the star of Bethlehem appears in a burst of clouds, shooting a ray of light down towards Jesus. At the lower right the words 'MATTHEW THE 2' are woven in silver thread. Parts of a red-and-white striped 'barber's pole' border can be seen around the edges, partly hidden by the frame. The tapestry is in a concave sanded gold frame painted with dark brown arabesques, with a gold moulded inner frame.
Full description
The story of the Adoration of the Magi is told in Matthew 2:1-12, but the biblical account was significantly embellished in later Christian iconography. The three Magi came from the East following a star, in search of the new King of the Jews. When they reached Jerusalem King Herod’s men directed them to Bethlehem, telling them to seek out the child and report back to Herod, as he secretly feared usurpation and hoped to discover where Jesus was and kill him. The star led the three Magi to Bethlehem where they found the infant Christ and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Historically the Magi were astrologers of the Persian court, but were redefined as Kings in the 2nd century AD; their names may originate as late as the 9th century. Traditionally Casper, or Jasper, the oldest, is shown kneeling before the infant Christ and offering him gold, as in the present tapestry; he has removed his crown which lies on the ground beside him. Behind him stand Balthazar and Melchior, the youngest, distinguishable in the tapestry by his youthful features and lack of beard. The arrangement of the scene conforms to a type common in sixteenth-century representations and the design may derive from a print. The 'Adoration' is one of a group of small tapestries of similar size and shape, which have traditionally been attributed to the tapestry workshop set up in the Barcheston manor house of William Sheldon in the mid sixteenth century. Our understanding of the workshop at Barcheston and its products rests largely on research published during the 1920s by John Humphreys, E A B Barnard and Professor A J B Wace (Humphreys 1924; Barnard and Wace 1928). This research has recently been re-evaluated by Dr Hilary Turner, who has thrown doubt upon many long-held assumptions about what constitutes a Sheldon tapestry (Turner 2008a, 2008b). Turner has argued that the basis for attributing tapestries to the Barcheston workshop, as established by Barnard and Wace in the 1920s, was based on false assumptions. She argues that although some tapestries may have been made there, others that have long been attributed to Barcheston were probably made elsewhere in England or on the continent. For instance Turner has shown that there were over 100 foreign tapestry weavers working in London in the late sixteenth century, and has suggested that much of the work formerly ascribed to the Barcheston workshop may have been produced by these weavers. The group of small tapestries to which the Fenton House 'Adoration' belongs are among the more contentious of the groups identified as 'Sheldon' tapestries in the 1920s. In 1928 there were only 6 known tapestries of this type, and there are now 16 (Turner 2008a; see for example Standen 1985, cats. 121 & 123; Wingfield Digby and Hefford 1980, cats. 71b, 102d, 103c). There is a related tapestry of 'Judith' in the National Trust's collection at Packwood House (no. 557840). They are united by their small size, fine weave, high proportion of silk thread (the Packwood example contains scarcely any wool), and the frequent lavish use of gilt metal wrapped thread (also in evidence at Fenton). Design features such as oversized foreground flowers and distinctive pipe-cleaner-shaped trees are common to many of the tapestries, as is the narrow striped ‘barber’s pole’ border seen on the ‘Adoration’. The subject matter is always biblical, and both Old and New Testament subjects are found. Roughly one third of the known examples have an additional border with an inscription, sometimes in Latin and sometimes in English, of a popular saying or a biblical quotation with some relation to the figurative scene. Occasionally as in the 'Adoration' the biblical source for the scene is given. It has been suggested by Turner that this group of tapestries is in fact German rather than English, based on stylistic similarity to some German sixteenth-century tapestries. However the comparison is not conclusive. The fact that the majority of these small tapestries have come to light in England, and the presence of inscriptions in English (as at Fenton) but in no other vernacular language suggest that they were made somewhere in England rather than in continental Europe. Two further tapestries are known with the same design as the Fenton House 'Adoration'. The first was owned by the New York dealers French and Company in 1938 (Getty Photo Study Collection, no. 0181949). The second was in the collection of the Kaiser Friederich Museum in the early twentieth century (Göbel x. part ii, 125 a) (both are described by Hilary Turner at www.tapestriescalledsheldon.info). (Helen Wyld, 2012)
Provenance
Owned by Katherine Salting, Lady Binning (1871 - 1952) by 1918; bequeathed by Lady Binning to the National Trust as part of the contents of Fenton House
Credit line
Fenton House, the Salting Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Lower right of tapestry: MATTHEW THE 2
Makers and roles
probably English, workshop
References
Turner 2008, Hilary L Turner, 'Tapestries once at Chastleton House and Their Influence on the Image of the Tapestries Called Sheldon: A Reassessment', The Antiquaries Journal, vol. 88 (September 2008), pp. 313-346 Turner 2008, Hilary L Turner, ‘Tapestry sections depicting the Prodigal Son: how safe is an attribution to Mr Sheldon’s tapestry venture at Barcheston?’, Archaeologica Aeliana, vol. 37 (2008), pp. 183-196 Standen, 1985: Edith Appleton Standen, European post-medieval tapestries and related hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1985 Wingfield Digby and Hefford, 1980: George Wingfield Digby and Wendy Hefford, Victoria and Albert Museum: The Tapestry Collection, Medieval and Renaissance, London 1980 Göbel, 1934: Heinrich Göbel, Die Germanischen und Slawischen Länder, vol. 3 of Wandteppiche, 2 vols., Berlin 1923 Barnard and Wace, 1928: E. A. B. Barnard and A. J. B. Wace, 'The Sheldon Tapestry Weavers and their Work', Archaeologia, lxxviii (1928), pp. 255-318 Humphreys, 1924: John Humphreys, 'Elizabethan Sheldon Tapestries', Archaeologia, vol. 74 (1924), pp. 181-202, reprinted as a monograph with the same title, Oxford 1929