Boys Bathing
possibly Antwerp
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1670 - circa 1690
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm
Order this imageCollection
Lyme, Cheshire
NT 500307
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm, Boys Bathing, Flemish, possibly Antwerp, c. 1670 -1690. A landscape with naked children swimming and playing by a lake. In the centre two children splash and swim in the water while a third runs to the bank with his arms above his head, ready to dive in. On the shore in the foreground another infant kneels in the centre drying his hair vigorously with a red towel, and to his right another boy drags his reluctant companion towards the water. Behind the lake is a large palace, and trees grow at either side of the scene. The borders are composed of strands of leaves and flowers on a dark brown ground that has faded to beige in most areas. In the centre of the lower border is a pool with reeds and fountains in the form of stone fishes, and water birds at either side. There are red squirrels in the upper and lower borders and parrots in the side borders.
Full description
This tapestry probably once belonged to a set representing children engaged in other games or pastimes, and its iconography relates to the children’s games which appear in paintings, prints and tapestries with great frequency in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Such scenes were often invested with moral or allegorical significance, and the innocent enjoyment of the children in the present tapestry may be intended to stress the fleeting nature of childish pleasures. At the same time the nudity of the children relates them to classical imagery of putti at play, often found on Roman sarcophagi and wall paintings, and popularised in the sixteenth century by Italian artists such as Polidoro da Caravaggio and various students of Raphael. During the seventeenth century a large number of tapestry sets featuring children at play were produced in the Low Countries, France, Italy, England and elsewhere. The present tapestry was almost certainly made in one of the Flemish weaving centres, probably Antwerp, where similar tapestries were produced, for example, by the Wauters firm (examples survive at Cotehele, no. 348275). The tapestry has been in its current location since at least 1929, when the inventory of Lyme Park describes it as ‘Flemish – One panel with border Buildings and Youthful Bacchanals bathing (measuring 9 ft. by 10 ft.)’, with a valuation of £750 (Biffard, Robertson & Lucy 1929, p. 32). (Helen Wyld, 2010)
Provenance
At Lyme Park since at least 1929; placed on loan from the 3rd Lord Newton to the National Trust in 1958; given to the National Trust by the 5th Lord Newton and the Hon. David Legh in 1997.
Credit line
Lyme Park, the Newton Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
n
Makers and roles
possibly Antwerp , workshop
References
Messrs. Biffard, Robertson & Lucy, Inventory and Valuation of Structural Enrichments, Tenants Fixtures and Fittings, Tapestries, Oil Paintings, Silver, Sheffield Plate and Plated Goods, [...]. The Property of the Honourable Richard Legh, London 1929 Thomas Sutton auctioneers, Lyme Hall, Disley, Stockport. Inventory of the Household Furniture, Pictures, Ornaments and Effects, July 1879