The Death of Eurydice
possibly Jan van der Goten (b.1642)
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1690 - circa 1710
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 6 warps per cm
Measurements
4320 x 3200 mm
Place of origin
Antwerp
Order this imageCollection
Lyme, Cheshire
NT 500318
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm, The Death of Eurydice, possibly Jan van der Goten, Antwerp, c. 1690-1710. On the left a group of five nymphs relax beside a fountain formed of a stone fish with a large urn beside it. Two lean against the stone parapets, one reaches out her arms and one kneels to offer flowers from a basket to the nymph in the centre, who has flowers in her hair and sits facing the viewer with one breast bare. An urn filled with flowers and decorated with a ram’s head is on the ground beside the nymphs. On the right hand side is a second group of two nymphs, one running and the other, Eurydice, falling as a snake bites her heel. The setting is a verdant landscape with roses and other plants growing in the foreground, leafy trees at the sides and an open landscape in the centre leading to a distant view of a city. The upper and lower borders have almost certainly been applied from an unrelated tapestry, and are woven with fruit, flowers and scrolling acanthus leaves on a pale brown ground, with a shell at the centre of the lower border. The side borders consist of figures in oriental dress standing under pavilions, and originally belong to the ‘Cadmus’ tapestries that hang in the Stag Parlour at Lyme (500317). The panel has been cut from top to bottom down the centre and re-joined, and the lower left hand corner has been folded up to make way for a fireplace.
Full description
The tapestry shows the tragic death of the wood nymph Eurydice, bitten on the heel by a snake while running through the forest with her companions. The story is told in Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. Eurydice was married to Orpheus, the legendary poet and bard from Thrace, who, stricken with grief at her death, descended to the underworld to bring her back. Persephone, the Queen of Hades, was touched by Orpheus’s plight and allowed him to lead Eurydice back to the surface on one condition: that he did not turn to look at her until they had emerged. Orpheus kept to his promise until the very end of their journey but then could not resist turning to make sure that his love was following, and she immediately slipped back into the world of the spirits. Orpheus was so distraught at the double loss of Eurydice that he retreated to the woods and hills of Thrace and lived alone, playing his lyre to the woods and streams, and charming the animals. Many women tried to seduce him but he refused them all. Finally, a band of frenzied Thracian women came upon him in the woods and began angrily hurling weapons at the man who had scorned them; their spears, made of wood and leaves, refused to hurt Orpheus and in the end the women tore him apart with their bare hands, spreading his limbs throughout the forest. Orpheus’s spirit descended to the Underworld and he was finally united with Eurydice (Ovid, ‘Metamorphoses’, Books X-XI). The tapestry is part of a series representing ‘The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice’, which may originally have had up to six or seven subjects. Only three are recorded today: ‘The Death of Eurydice’, which survives in two at Lyme, Cotehele (inv. 348246), and in a private collection; ‘Eurydice slipping back into the Underworld’, sold Christie’s, 19 July 1927; and a ‘Death of Orpheus’, in borders identical to those on the ‘Death of Eurydice’ at Cotehele, recorded in the early twentieth century (Göbel 1927, pl. 165). The single panel now at Cotehele may originally have been part of a larger set, as it is accompanied by a number of spare sections of border. Some of the surviving ‘Orpheus’ tapestries can be attributed to the Antwerp tapissier Jan van der Goten (fl. 1670 – after 1700) or his relative (possibly his son) Jacob van der Goten (fl. c. 1700 – 1724). ‘The Killing of Orpheus’ reproduced by Göbel was signed ‘I VAN DER GOTEN’, the ‘I’ standing for either Jan or Jacob, and the tapestry at Cotehele was also almost certainly signed in the same way (Arundell 1840, p. 31; Hefford 1991, n. p.). However, the tapestry at Lyme Park bears the remnants of the signature of another weaver, Marcus de Vos (fl. 1655 – after 1697), and the mark of the city of Brussels where de Vos was active. Although it was not unknown for weavers in Antwerp and Brussels to share cartoons, in this case the signatures, and the upper and lower borders on the Lyme tapestry, have almost certainly been attached from an unrelated tapestry. Although these borders are very similar to those found on related tapestries from the ‘Orpheus and Eurydice set, they are in fact slightly different, including a shell motif in the centre, and omitting the fox- and lion-masks found at Cotehele and elsewhere. There is no record of the designer the ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ series, but the style is reminiscent of the tapestries designed by Pieter Ijkens, who produced tapestry designs for many Antwerp weavers at the end of the seventeenth century, often in collaboration with the landscape painter Pieter Spierinckx. A bill of 1708 among the papers of the Forchoudt firm records a series of six pieces of tapestry of the ‘History of Orpheus’ woven in Oudenaarde after designs by Pieter Spierinckx (Denucé 1931, p. 268), but it is not clear whether this refers to the Wauters ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ set or the van der Goten set. Both are stylistically close to the known work of Ijkens and Spierincks’s, and the Wauters series has been attributed to them by Koenraad Brosens (Brosens 2008, pp. 199-206). (Helen Wyld, 2010)
Provenance
At Lyme Park since at least 1929; placed on loan from the 3rd Lord Newton to the National Trust 1948. Accepted by HM Government in Lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust, 2014.
Marks and inscriptions
Lower galloon, centre (partly folded in): Partial signature ‘M DE VOS’ Lower galloon, left (folded in): Partial mark of the city of Brussels
Makers and roles
possibly Jan van der Goten (b.1642), workshop possibly Jacob van der Goten (d. Madrid 1724), workshop Marcus de Vos (fl.1655 - 1663), workshop possibly Pieter Spierinckx (1635 - 1711), designer
References
Brosens, 2008: Koenraad Brosens, European Tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago, New Haven and London 2008 de Meûter, 2001: Ingrid de Meûter, 'L'oeuvre reconstitué du peintre anversois Pieter Spierinckx (1635-1711), créateur de cartons de tapisseries', Bulletin des Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire vol. 72 (2001), pp. 121-152 de Meûter, 2003: Ingrid De Meûter, 'Le peintre anversois Pieter Spierinckx,1635-1711, créateur de cartons de tapisserie', in Koenraad Brosens (ed.), Flemish tapestry in European and American Collections, Turnhout 2003, pp.133-152 Delmarcel, 1999: Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt 1999 Hefford, 1991: Wendy Hefford, The Cotehele Tapestries, The National Trust, 1991 (n.p.) Denucé, 1936: Jean Denucé, Antwerpsche tapijtkunst en handel, Antwerp 1936 Denucé, 1931: Jean Denucé, Kunstuitvoer in de 17e eeuw te Antwerpen: de firma Forchoudt, Antwerp 1931