Caption

This is one of a series of Mortlake tapestries woven in the 17th century which depict either religious symbols to indicate the way to live your life, or classical landscapes which invoke heroic ideals. This one shows Abraham and Sarah receiving gifts from the Pharoah.

Summary

Tapestry, wool and silk, 6 warps per cm, The Return of Sarah by the Egyptians from a set of eight of the Story of Abraham, Mortlake, after a design attributed to Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Bernard van Orley, c. 1658-9. To the left Abraham and his wife Sarah stand by a tree watching as four men kneel with a casket of treasure and various rich golden vessels, Abraham's goods. In the background on the right the tiny figure of Abraham can be seen on a hillside, conversing with God who appears in a sunburst in the sky. The borders include putti riding seahorses at the lower corners, river gods with small wings, reeds for hair and fish tails holding jars of water in the side borders, and martial trophies of bows and arrows in the upper corners. In the upper border there is a cartouche with a Latin inscription framed by dog masks and stone putti with bunches of fruit at either side, and the lower border is formed of a low balustrade laid over the main field. The lower edge of the bottom border is hidden.

Full description

'The Return of Sarah by the Egyptians' is the second tapestry in the 'Story of Abraham' set at Blickling. King Abimelech had taken the beautiful Sarah from Abraham when they arrived in Egypt, but was then plagued by a dream in which God berated him for taking another man's wife. Abimelech, who had thought Sarah was Abraham's sister, summoned Abraham and questioned him. When he found out the truth, that Sarah was Abraham's wife and not his sister (although she was in fact also his half sister), he returned Sarah to Abraham and gave him gifts of servants, livestock and money. The tapestry shows Sarah returning to be reunited with Abraham, and on the right the treasures and livestock given to him by the Egyptians. The story of Sarah's abduction appears twice with different details in the Book of Genesis: first in chapter 12, and second in chapter 20. The details of the design and the Latin inscription suggest that the scene in the tapestry is based on the account in chapter 20. In the original series of designs upon which the Mortlake 'Abraham' tapestries are based, the present scene was the right-hand part of a larger scene that also included the abduction of Sarah in the left background. For the Mortlake weaving however the scene has been divided and woven as two separate tapestries. This is clear from the fact that the 'Return' has borders on all four sides, and both scenes have their own Latin inscription. 'The Abduction of Sarah by the Egyptians' (355716.3), now missing its borders, hangs next to 'The Return of Sarah by the Egyptians' in the Upper Ante Room at Blickling. A sixteenth-century version of the same scene, including the abduction of Sarah, is at Hardwick Hall (1129441.4). The 'Story of Abraham' tapestries are based on a series of designs first woven in Brussels in around 1540. The earliest known set was bought by Henry VIII in 1543-4 and survives at Hampton Court Palace, and further sets were woven in the sixteenth century for other patrons. The tapestries at Blickling were woven in the 1650s at the Mortlake workshop on the banks of the Thames outside London. The designs were based on the tapestries bought by Henry VIII in the 1540s, which were at that time still at Hampton Court. The original 'Abraham' series comprised ten scenes illustrating the major events in Abraham's life, and emphasising his role as the progenitor of the Hebrew nation, his covenant with God and its continuation through his son Isaac. The ten subjects are: 1. 'God Commands Abraham to Lead the Israelites into Canaan', 2. 'The Return of Sarah by the Egyptians', 3. 'The Parting of Abraham and Lot', 4. 'The Meeting of Abraham and Melchisedek', 5. 'God Appears to Abraham', 6. 'The Circumcision of Isaac', 7. 'The Sacrifice of Isaac', 8. 'Abraham Purchases the Field of Ephron', 9. 'The Oath and Departure of Eliezer', 10. 'Rebecca at the Well'. Thomas Campbell has argued that the 'Abraham' set woven for Henry VIII was the first set ever woven, and that Henry may have commissioned the designs himself. The subject of Abraham was part of a personal iconography which aligned Henry with Old Testament patriarchs as a means of justifying his new position as head of the Church of England. Abraham also figured in Christian typology as the progenitor of Christ, and would therefore have had additional resonance following the birth of Henry's son Edward in 1537. The designer of the original 'Abraham' series is unknown. The series has been attributed to Bernard van Orley (c. 1488-1541), and more recently to either Michiel Coxcie (1499-1592) or Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502-1550), both of whom designed large-scale narrative tapestries for the Brussels industry in the mid sixteenth century. Examining the available evidence Thomas Campbell has suggested that the designs were in fact a collaboration, with the initial idea being supplied by van Orley and the designs being completed after his death in 1541 by his pupil Pieter Coecke van Aelst (Campbell 2003, pp, 63-4). The 'Abraham' tapestries at Blickling were not woven from the original cartoons but from new cartoons based on the tapestries in Henry VIII's collection, with additional scenes and new borders designed by Francis Cleyn (1582-1658). Five of the tapestries at Blickling, 'The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael', 'The Meeting of Abraham and Melchisedek', 'The Parting of Abraham and Lot', 'The Abduction of Sarah by the Egyptians' and 'The Return of Sarah by the Egyptians' are based on Henry VIII's tapestries. The two panels relating to Sarah's abduction formed a single scene in Henry VIII's set, and 'The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael' was originally part of a larger scene of the 'Circumcision of Isaac'. Two additional narrow panels with single figures of 'Sarah' and 'King Abimelech', do not appear in the original series and were designed by Cleyn. They seem to have been designed as self-contained vertical panels, whereas the ten original scenes are wide, multi-figure compositions. The figure of 'King Abimelech' closely replicates the figure of Leander in 'Leander taking leave of his Parents', part of a series of tapestry designs of the 'Story of Hero and Leander' designed by Cleyn in the late 1620s (see Mulherron and Wyld 2010). There is an example of this subject in the National Trust's collection at Hardwick Hall (no. 1129507.1). 'Sarah' on the other hand exactly repeats Sarah's pose in 'The Return of Sarah by the Egyptians', in the Abraham series and the tree behind her seems to derive from another of the original scenes, 'The Parting of Abraham and Lot'. The eighth tapestry in the Upper Ante Room at Blickling, 'Soldier with a Lance', is not part of the Mortlake 'Abraham' set and comes from an unidentified Flemish set dating from c. 1660-1680. Borders from the Mortlake 'Abraham' tapestries have been applied to this panel to integrate it with the others. The tapestry borders were almost certainly designed by Cleyn. The putti in the upper borders supporting a fictive parchment are similar to putti on the borders of earlier Mortlake tapestries designed by Cleyn, for example sets of 'Hero and Leander' and the 'Acts of the Apostles dating from the 1630s. The lower border is much simpler and comprises a low balustrade which is laid over the main field, so that details of landscape can be seen between the pillars. The balustrade appears again on the border of a 'Hero and Leander' set at Hardwick Hall, dating from the 1640s or 1650s (no. 1129507). The 'Abraham' tapestries were woven at Mortlake at the end of the 1650s. Few tapestries had been produced at Mortlake since the early 1640s and the outbreak of the Civil War. However a government report in 1649 on necessary repairs to the tapestry house showed that the Commonwealth administration was willing to give some support to the workshop, and in October 1651 Mortlake was judged 'fit for encouragement' by a Commonwealth committee (CSP Dom., 1649-50, p. 280; 1651, p. 463). In the same year the stock of tapestry cartoons at Mortlake was reserved from sale by order of Parliament (Millar 1972, p. 423). Henry VIII’s tapestry set was already reserved from sale for Cromwell’s use, being the most highly valued item in the Commonwealth inventory at £8,260, and they were also used for references. The first mention of a new series of 'Abraham' tapestries comes in May 1657, with an order to pay Philip Hallenberch (Mortlake's master weaver at this time, his name is sometimes spelt Hullenberch, Hullenbergh or Hollibury) and the workmen at Mortlake to "design the story of Abraham, or the Triumphs of Caesar, or both, as his Highness shall direct, Mr. Clyve [Clyne] being spoken thereon, provided that the charge do not exceed 50 l., and that the design be only used as his Highness shall appoint". (CSP Dom., 1656-7, p. 385). Payments to Cleyn "towards the charge of 2 stories to be designed by the tapestry workmen at Mortlake" were made in August 1657, December 1657 and March 1658, totalling £240. The mention of 'tapestry workmen' indicates that Cleyn had assistance in preparing the cartoons. It is possible that an 'Abraham' series had been planned earlier as two cartoons of 'Abraham & Hagar' were at Mortlake in 1651 (Millar 1972, p. 623). There is no evidence that the set was woven before this date however, and it may have been an unfinished project. Weaving the tapestries probably began no earlier than 1658, as preparation of the cartoons was still underway in March 1658. The date of the set at Blickling is hard to pinpoint exactly as it is not known whether this was the first set woven, or whether 'Abraham' tapestries continued to be woven after the Restoration. Certainly the quality of the weaving and dyes suggests a relatively early date, as standards at Mortlake declined after 1660. Apart from the set at Blickling, the only known Mortlake 'Abraham' tapestry to survive is a single panel of 'The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael' in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. T.7-1956). The V&A tapestry bears the mark of a red cross on a white shield, used by the Mortlake workshop. The early history of the tapestries at Blickling is unknown. (Helen Wyld, 2011)