The Adoration of the Magi
Oudenaarde
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1570 - circa 1590
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm
Measurements
2240 x 1730 mm
Order this imageCollection
Cotehele, Cornwall
NT 348342
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm, The Adoration of the Magi, Oudenaarde, c. 1570-1590. The Virgin Mary, wearing a blue gown over a yellow dress and a white veil on her head, is seated to the right of the tapestry with the infant Jesus on her lap. Jesus reaches out his hands to one of three Magi who approach offering gifts. Behind Mary, Joseph stands before a thatched stable building, the heads of an ox and an ass visible through arched windows. The setting is a landscape and in the background on the left the three Kings appear again travelling on camels. The borders of the tapestry are composed o fvine branches winding around a central cord with lion masks in each corner and a narrow band of acanthus-leaf decoration at the inner and outer edge.
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 as early as 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 where 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 shorter beard. The arrangement of the scene conforms to a type common in sixteenth-century representations. The tapestry was made in Oudenaarde in the late sixteenth century. The origin is confirmed by the presence of two marks woven into the galloon on the right hand side (now folded in). In the lower right corner is the remains of the mark of the city of Oudenaarde, a shield with three horizontal red bands surmounted by a pair of spectacles (only one red band and the spectacles survive, and the red has faded to grey). Higher up on the right-hand galloon is the mark of a weaver or entrepreneur in the form of two small loops joined to a larger loop. From 1544 all tapestries made in the Spanish Netherlands had by law to be woven with the mark of their city of origin and the mark of either the master weaver or the dealer/entrepreneur responsible for their manufacture. Only partial records survive and the identity of all the weavers is not known today, and the mark with three loops has not been recorded before. The tapestry may once have formed part of a series with scenes from the Life of Christ, possibly but not necessarily intended for use in a liturgical context. Tapestries with New Testament subjects were relatively unusual in Oudenaarde production, and where Old Testament and historical subjects were more common. Some comparable examples do survive however, including a panel of ‘John the Baptist’ formerly with the New York dealers French and Company, whose style is comparable to the present tapestry and which has a similar border (Getty Photographic Archive, 0242702). Similar borders appear on a number of other Oudenaarde tapestries from the same period (De Meûter 1999, pp. 193-5). (Helen Wyld, 2010)
Provenance
The tapestry was removed from Cotehele by the 6th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe to hang in the chapel of Mount Edgcumbe and was given by his daughter, Lady Hilaria Gibbs, to hang in the chapel at Cotehele in 1983.
Credit line
Cotehele House, The Edgcumbe Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Right-hand galloon, approx 20 cm from bottom (folded under): Unidentified maker’s mark Right-hand galloon, bottom corner (folded under): Mark of the city of Oudenaarde
Makers and roles
Oudenaarde, workshop
References
de Meûter et al., 1999: Ingrid de Meûter, Martine Vanwelden et al., Tapisseries d'Audenarde du XVle au XVllle Siècle, Tielt 1999