The Life of Diogenes
possibly Mortlake Tapestry Manufactory
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1680 - circa 1700
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 437003
Summary
A set of 4 tapestries of The Life of Diogenes, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm, possibly Mortlake, c.1680-1700.
Full description
The philosopher Diogenes of Sinope (412/403–324/321 BC) was considered, along with Antisthenes, the founder of Cynicism. His nickname ‘Cynic’, literally ‘doglike’, reflects the highly unconventional lifestyle he lived and advocated. Diogenes re-evaluating mankind’s relation to both nature and civilization, and redefined the individual’s freedom and self-sufficiency. None of Diogenes's written works survives, but he quickly became an established literary figure and numerous anecdotes arose relating to his eccentricities. The four tapestries at Belton come from a series of seven scenes from the life of Diogenes, with the subjects 'Plato's Academy', 'Diogenes in Meditation', 'Diogenes Beside his Barrel', 'Diogenes Washing Plants', 'Diogenes Discarding his Cup', 'Diogenes Writing on the Wall' and 'Alexander Visiting Diogenes'. The subjects were taken from Diogenes Laertius's 'The Lives of the Philosophers', written in the 3rd century AD and the main source for Diogenes's life. The text was published in Latin in London in 1664 (see Diogenes Laertius 1925). The designs for four of the tapestries, and their Latin inscriptions, derive from etchings by Salvator Rosa published in 1662, and the other three designs were composed by an unknown artist in Rosa's style (Hefford 2010, p. 240). The 'Diogenes' tapestries were made at Mortlake and/or smaller London workshops at the end of the seventeenth century. The Dyrham tapestries are not signed but other examples survive with the maker's mark of a red cross on a white shield, first used at Mortlake from 1619 but was adopted by other tapestry workshops in the London area after 1660. A fragment at Llanerchaeron from a tapestry of 'Diogenes Discarding his Cup', with the same border as the Dyrham tapestries, bears the red cross mark in conjunction with the initials IR, which may stand for Jan Rosset, who worked at Mortlake, or possibly John Ridges, an upholsterer active in London in the 1670s and 1680s (Hefford, 1985; Hefford 2010, p. 240; Hefford 2002, p. 55). The tapestries can be definitely dated to after 1662 when Salvator Rosa's etchings were published. With their extensive, elegaic landscapes they are closer in spirit to tapestry designs of the 1670s onwards. The earliest record of the series comes in 1683 when a set of 'Dioguines hangings' was bought for Charles II, although the details of the purchase have been lost. 'Five pieces of tapestry hangings of the Story of Diogenes' were repaired for the crown by the Yeoman Arrasworker, John Vanderbank, in 1692, and in 1696 Vanderbank relined five pieces. In March of that year six Diogenes tapestries, 11 feet high, were in the Standing Wardrobe at St James's Palace. These records probably relate to a set of five that survive in the Royal Collection at Holyroodhouse. The original lining of one of these panels is marked '6:ps 11 FOOT DIOGENES', and the reverse of another bears the crowned 'IR' stamp used by King James II (r. 1685-1688), indicating that the set entered the royal collection before or during his reign (Swain 1988, pp. 12-16). Numerous sets and partial sets of 'Diogenes' tapestries survive including, within the National Trust's collections, two tapestries at Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire (454596-7), a single panel of 'Plato's Academy' in the Chapel at Chirk Castle, Wrexham (no. 1171322), and a fragment, mentioned above, from 'Diogenes Discarding his Cup' at Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion (no. 548684). The purchase of the Belton 'Diogenes' tapestries is not recorded. They bear the coat of arms of John Brownlow, Viscount Tyrconnel (1690-1754), but these appear to have been applied later. The set may have been acquired by 'Young' Sir John Brownlow (1659-97) who built Belton in the 1680s, or bought second hand by Viscount Tyrconnel. The tapestries are first recorded in Tyrconnel's posthumous inventory of 1754, when "Two pieces of fine tapestry hangings with the Late Lord's Arms and the history of Diogenes and Plato" hung in the present Red Drawing Room, then known as the Tapestry Room or North Drawing Room. The tapestries were installed in the present Tapestry Room when the room was remodelled in c. 1880, having apparently been found in the attics being used as carpets (Belton, 1983). All four tapestries have been significantly altered in size, possibly more than once, with large sections of the sky and foliage added to extend their height and borders removed and re-attached. (Helen Wyld, 2012)
Provenance
Given to the National Trust with the house and fixed contents by Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow (b. 1936) in 1984
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by The National Trust in 1984)
Makers and roles
possibly Mortlake Tapestry Manufactory , workshop after Salvator Rosa (Arenella, Naples 1615 – Rome 1673), designer
References
Hefford, 2010: Wendy Hefford, ‘The English Tapestries’, in Guy Delmarcel, Nicole de Reyniès and Wendy Hefford, The Toms Collection Tapestries of the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Zürich 2010, pp. 239-294 Hefford, 2002: Wendy Hefford, ‘Flemish Tapestry Weavers in England: 1550-1775’, in Guy Delmarcel (ed.), Flemish Tapestry Weavers Abroad, Leuven 2002, pp. 43-61 Swain, 1988: Margaret Swain, Tapestries and Textiles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the Royal Collection, London 1988 Hefford, 1985: Wendy Hefford, 'The Diogenes Tapestries and the Stamford Legend', Bulletin du Liaison du Centre International des Textiles anciens, nos. 59-60, 1984 II, (1985), pp. 67-79 Belton, 1983: unpublished report on the Belton MSS (Lincolnshire Archives), 1983 (copy at Belton House) Diogenes Laertius, 1925: Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, trans. Robert Hicks, London and New York 1925