The Story of Mankind
Hendrik I Reydams (Brussels, fl. 1629 – d.1669)
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1640 - circa 1660
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm
Place of origin
Brussels
Order this imageCollection
Cotehele, Cornwall
NT 348307
Summary
A set of four tapestries of the Story of Mankind, tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm, workshop of Hendrik I Reydams, Brussels, after designs attributed to Antoine Sallaert, c. 1640-1660.
Full description
The ‘Story of Mankind’ tapestries are designed to convey a moral lesson, following Mankind on a path through various temptations, virtues and vices, reflecting the ages of man and his changing attitude to Fortune. The principal moral of the series is an appeal to exercise the virtue of Temperance (whose personification appears in many of the scenes, with her attribute of a bridle) in the face of various temptations, in order to have good fortune (Bona Fortuna). There must originally have been more tapestries from this set at Cotehele than the four that survive, as a complete side border survives in storage sewn to an unrelated piece of verdure (348310), and an additional lower border also now in storage (348279.2) was formerly attached to one of the ‘Story of Rome’ tapestries (348294). By around 1840 when the Rev. Arundell visited Cotehele however there were only four tapestries, displayed in the Old Drawing Room as they are today. Arundell commented that “The tapestry in this apartment is admirable in design and execution; and the only regret of the spectator is, that the person from whose loom it came … had not kindly given an explanatory notice over each piece”, he concluded that “instead of presuming to decide upon the subjects of the … pieces of tapestry, it may be more modest simply to describe them” (Arundell 1840, p. 33). The design of the ‘Story of Mankind’ series is attributed to the Brussels painter and tapestry designer Antoine Sallaert (1594 – 1650) on the basis of a pen-and-ink sketch attributed to him in the Musée Plantin Moretus, Antwerp, which relates to the final scene, ‘The Triumph of Virtue’. This drawing probably served as a ‘petit patron’ or small-scale model which was then worked up into a full-sized cartoon by a specialist cartoon painter. Sallaert became a master painter in Brussels in 1613 and in 1646 he was granted a certificate by the tapestry weavers of the city allowing him exemption from certain taxes. The tapestry weavers stated that Sallaert had already “invented more than twenty-seven tapestry chambers by his own work and had drawn the cartoons for them”, and went on to say that their industry “had not only gained a new style or manner in its work, but in addition had been freed of the need to seek such cartoons from painters in other cities” (quoted in Delmarcel 1999, pp. 240-1). Sallaert’s ‘new style’ was characterised by large, monumental figures arranged in a shallow foreground plane, strongly influenced by Rubens, who had transformed Flemish tapestry design in the 1630s with sets such as ‘The History of Decius Mus’ and ‘The Triumph of the Eucharist’. Sallaert’s tapestry designs include many specific references to Rubens such as ‘The Triumph of Virtue’, which closely resembles Rubens’s ‘Triumph of the Eucharist’ – The Rev. Arundell actually confused the two designs when he visited Cotehele. The lower borders of all four tapestries at Cotehele bear the mark of the city of Brussels (two ‘B’s either side of a red shield) and the signature of the master weaver/entrepreneur Hendrik I Reydams (c. 1600-1669). These marks are all now hidden since the lower edge of each tapestry is folded over. Hendrik I Reydams was made a member of the Brussels tapestry weavers’ guild in 1629, gained a privilege in 1640 and became dean of the craft in 1650, and after his death in 1669 his son, Hendrik II Reydams (fl. 1665-1719) continued his workshop. The tapestry set at Cotehele probably dates from the 1640s or 1650s. The four tapestries at Cotehele represent one of four surviving weavings of ‘The Story of Mankind’. Two sets are in the Spanish Royal Collection (Junquera de Vega and Diaz Gallegos 1986, pp. 134-148). The first has no surviving signature but according to Göbel was signed by Jan van den Hecke, and has been dated to c. 1630. It is a complete set of seven tapestries, and includes the following subjects: ‘Temperance and the Pagan Gods’, ‘Fortune Berating those who Demand too many Gifts’, ‘The Vices Chasing Temperance away’, ‘Patience Humbling Fortune’, ‘The Triumph of Virtue over the Vices’, ‘Blind Fortune Distributing Plenty and Want’, and ‘Time Leading the Pleasures away from Old Age’. The second Spanish set is signed by the Brussels weaver/entrepreneur Jan II Raes (c. 1570-1643) and includes five panels: ‘Temperance and the Pagan Gods’, ‘The Vices Chasing Temperance away’, ‘Patience Humbling Fortune’, ‘The Triumph of Virtue over the Vices’ (reduced in size), ‘Two Ancient Philosophers’ (part of ‘The Triumph of Virtue’) and ‘Time Leading the Pleasures away from Old Age’. A third set consisting of four panels, including ‘Time Leading the Pleasures away from Old Age’, is in the collection of the Accademia dei Concordi, Rogivo, but has not been fully published. The two sets in the Spanish Royal Collection appear to be slightly earlier in date than the one at Cotehele. Comparison of the designs reveals that whilst the two Spanish sets are remarkable close to one another, the Cotehele set differs from them both in a number of respects. For example in ‘Temperance and the Pagan Gods’ at Cotehele Jupiter is almost naked, whilst in the earlier sets he is dressed in elaborate royal robes; in ‘The Vices Chasing Temperance away’, although the figures have the same attributes, they have been substantially rearranged in the Cotehele version, and the whole composition is reversed; the background to ‘The Triumph of Virtue’ is less extensive on the right hand side at Cotehele, and includes more clouds; and in the Cotehele version of ‘Time leading the Pleasures away from Old Age’, Time’s wings are smaller and he has gained a blue cloak. Overall there are numerous small alterations and noticeable stylistic differences in the execution of the Cotehele panels when compared with the two Spanish sets, suggesting that Reydams was working from cartoons copied from the originals and modified in the process. (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
Hendrik I Reydams (Brussels, fl. 1629 – d.1669), workshop Anthonis Sallaert (Brussels c.1590 – Brussels 1658), designer
References
Brosens and de Laet, 2009: Koenraad Brosens and Weerle de Laet, ‘Matthijs Roelandts, Joris Leemans and Lanceloot Lefebure: new data on Baroque tapestry in Brussels’, Burlington Magazine, vol. CLI, no. 1275 (June 2009), pp. 360-367 Delmarcel, 1999: Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt 1999 Michielssen, 1994: P A Michielssen, ‘De 17de-eeuwse burgermoraal, geformuleerd in drie Brusselse wandtapijtreeksen naar patroonen van Antoon Sallaert (voor 1590-1650)’, unpublished MA thesis, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven 1994 Hefford, 1991: Wendy Hefford, The Cotehele Tapestries, The National Trust, 1991 (n.p.) Junquera de Vega and Gallegos, 1986: Paulina Junquera de Vega and Carmen Díaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio nacional, volumen II: siglo XVII, Madrid 1986 Paulina Junquera de Vega, ‘El Pintor Antoine Sallaert en el Patrimonio Nacional, Reales Sitios, vol. XIX, no. 71 (1982), pp. 29-36 Duverger, 1980: Erik Duverger, ‘Patronen voor Tapijtwerk in het Sterfhuis van François van den Hecke’, Artes Textiles, vol. 10 (1980), pp. 221-234 Vennet, 1974-1980: Marie van de Vennet, ‘Le Peintre bruxellois Antoine Sallaert’, Bulletin des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nos. 23-29 (1974-1980), pp. 171-198 Paulina Junquera de Vega, ‘Un “Pequeno Patron” de Antonio Sallaert y su Traduccion en Tapices’, Artes Textiles, vol. 8 (1974), pp. 114-122