The Seven Liberal Arts
Michel Wauters (d.1679)
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1660 - circa 1680
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm
Measurements
2220 x 4920 mm
Place of origin
Antwerp
Order this imageCollection
Cotehele, Cornwall
NT 348261.6
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm, The Seven Liberal Arts from a set of six of the Seven Liberal Arts, Antwerp, Michiel Wauters or Wauters, Cocx and de Wael, c. 1660-1680. A large rectangular tapestry with seven allegorical figures representing the liberal arts. On the far left, set back slightly, is the winged figure of Astronomy, standing beside a celestial globe and gazing at the stars through a telescope. Next is Music, also set back slightly, seated on a step. Then come the two standing figures of Rhetoric, holding a scroll with the letters ABCDE written on it and looking over her shoulder at Music, and Arithmetic, holding a slate with mathematical problem chalked on it, which she attempts to explain to the inattentive Rhetoric. On the far right are Dialectics, with a caduceus in one hand and a parrot on the other, Geometry, seated by a terrestrial globe and leaning on a long ruler, and behind them Grammar with an open book.
Full description
There are the remains of two different sets of the ‘Liberal Arts’ tapestries at Cotehele: the first series, including ‘Geometry’ (348261.5), a fragment from ‘Astronomy’ (348261.1) and one of the two examples of ‘Arithmetic’ (348261.4), has a border imitating a carved and gilded frame; the second includes ‘The Seven Liberal Arts’ (348261.6) and the other version of ‘Arithmetic’ (348261.3), and has a narrow border with a band of shimmering red and white ribbon. The large panel of ‘Grammar’ (348261.2) has no borders so could belong to either set. Sections of the narrow red and white border can be found applied to the ‘Fragment with a boat’ from ‘Venus and Phaon’ in the White Room (348258.2), to the upper edge of ‘Circe’ which hangs in the Red Room (348248.2), and to two narrow composite fragments under the windows in the Punch Room. The Seven Liberal Arts, the subject of this set of tapestries, formed the basic curriculum for secular learning in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. They emerged as a standard set of disciplines in the 5th century and were divided into two groups, the Trivium, which included Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectics, and the more advanced Quadrivium, which included Arithmetic, Geometry, Music (or Harmonics), and Astronomy. The Liberal Arts were viewed by the medieval Church as weapons against heretics, and appear frequently in Gothic sculpture. From the fourteenth century onwards they begin to appear in frescoes, illuminated manuscripts and subsequently in serial media such as prints and tapestries. Each of the arts developed a standard iconography and set of attributes (although there were some variations), and they were also frequently represented with a historical representative of the discipline (for example Pythagoras for Arithmetic and Euclid for Geometry in the tapestry at Cotehele). The ‘Liberal Arts’ tapestry series was almost certainly designed by Daniel Janssens (1636-1682), an artist and tapestry designer from Mechelen in the Southern Netherlands, a town which specialised in producing designs for tapestry. Janssens is known to have provided a number of sets of tapestry designs to Antwerp weavers in the late seventeenth century, as well as architectural and decorative works. A bill dated 1679 lists a number of designs painted by Janssens for Michiel Wauters, and although this does not mention the ‘Liberal Arts’, an undated list of tapestries held by the Antwerp dealers, the firm Forchoudt (who frequently dealt in tapestries by the Wauters), included “8 pieces of the Liberal Arts painted by Janssens” (Denucé 1936, p. 112; Denucé 1931, p. 272). Although none of the tapestries at Cotehele is signed, a related example is recorded with the signature of the Antwerp tapissier Michiel Wauters, and with a border identical to series 1 at Cotehele (Deurne 1973, p. 70). The inventory taken on Michiel Wauters’s death in 1679 included eight cartoons and two sets of tapestries of the ‘Liberal Arts’ (Denucé 1932, p. 302). Michiel Wauters and his brother Philip, with whom he worked closely, both died in 1679 and their stock passed to Maria Anna Wauters who carried on the business with her brothers-in-law Jeremias Cocx and Cornelis de Wael, using the old cartoons. It is therefore possible that the tapestries at Cotehele were made after Michiel’s death. The Wauters firm was the largest and most important tapestry producer and dealer in late seventeenth-century Antwerp, with a large export trade throughout Europe. Their tapestries were very popular with English clients and large numbers survive in this country – so much so that they were once thought to be the work of English weavers (Marillier 1930). Panels from the ‘Liberal Arts’ appear in various locations throughout the house watercolours by Nicholas Condy of c. 1840. Since then many of the panels have moved, and at least one has been lost – Condy’s view of the White Room (then known as the Ante-Room) shows a tapestry of ‘Rhetoric’, cut in two, which does not survive. The ‘Seven Liberal Arts’ that now hangs in the Red Room was also in the Punch Room at this time, whilst one of the two versions of ‘Arithmetic’ that now hang in King Charles’s Room was in the White Room. The only panel to appear in its present position is the fragment from ‘Astronomy’, by the window in the White Room. In his description of Cotehele, which accompanied Condy’s illustrations, the Rev. Arundell wrote enthusiastically of the ‘Seven Liberal Arts’ in the dining room: “The tapestry represents the Sciences, and might be called the School of Athens, from the similarity of subject to the celebrated picture of Raphael” (Arundell 1840, p. 15). The only other set of ‘Liberal Arts’ known to survive in Britain is at Cawdor Castle, Nairn. (Helen Wyld, 2010)
Provenance
First recorded at Cotehele c. 1840; left at Cotehele when the property was accepted in lieu of tax from Kenelm, 6th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (1873-1965) and transferred to the National Trust in 1947; amongst the contents accepted in lieu of estate duty by H M treasury and transferred to the National Trust in 1974.
Credit line
Cotehele House, The Edgcumbe Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Michel Wauters (d.1679), workshop possibly Wauters, Cockx and de Wael , workshop possibly Maria Anna Wauters (c.1656 - 1703), workshop Daniel Janssens (Mechelen 1636 - 1682), designer
References
Deurne, 1973: Anne Marie Peré, Eric Duverger and Jan Walgrave, Antwerpse Wandtapijten, exh. cat. Deurne 1973 Denucé, 1936: Jean Denucé, Antwerpsche tapijtkunst en handel, Antwerp 1936 Crick-Kuntziger, 1935: Marthe Crick-Kuntziger, 'Contribution à l'histoire de la tapisserie anversoise: les marques et les tentures des Wauters', in Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art, 5, 1935, pp. 35-44 Denucé, 1932: Jean Denucé, De Antwerpsche “Konstkamers”: inventarissen van kunstverzamelingen te Antwerpen in de 16e en 17e eeuwen, Antwerp 1932 Denucé, 1931: Jean Denucé, Kunstuitvoer in de 17e eeuw te Antwerpen: de firma Forchoudt, Antwerp 1931 Marillier, 1930: Henry C Marillier, English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century, London 1930 Arundell, 1840: The Rev. F V J Arundell (illustrated by Nicholas Condy), Cothele, on the banks of the Tamar, London c. 1840