Elijah’s Sacrifice
possibly Antwerp
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1650 - circa 1670
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 6-7 warps per cm
Measurements
3380 x 1920 mm
Order this imageCollection
Lyme, Cheshire
NT 500339.1
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 6-7 warps per cm, Elijah’s Sacrifice from a set of two of the Story of Elijah, Flemish, possibly Antwerp, c. 1650 - 1670. In the centre Elijah kneels before an altar where the remains of a bull bursts into flames. To the right King Ahab, richly dressed in blue and gold armour and a red cloak, raises his arms in astonishment whilst a small boy carrying his cloak looks up at him and in the right foreground a man wearing a blue cloak shrinks away in fear. Behind the altar to the left onlookers surround the burning sacrifice, those at the front bowing down in reverence. In the foreground a quantity of rich golden vessels are piled up on the pavement and to the left a small dog runs away and a woman approaches leading by the hand a small boy who holds a toy windmill. The tapestry has been cut around all four edges and has no borders.
Full description
The tapestry represents the sacrifice made by Elijah on Mount Carmel, as related in I Kings 18. After returning from exile at Zarephath, Elijah was captured and brought to the court of King Ahab, who worshipped the false god Baal (I Kings 18.17-18). Elijah then asked Ahab to gather all the prophets and the people together, and issued a challenge, asking for two bullocks to be brought and cut onto pieces and laid each on an altar with wood; “And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.” (I Kings 18.24). The prophets of Baal laid out their sacrificial bullock on an altar and called out to Baal from morning until evening, but nothing happened and Elijah mocked them. Elijah then called the people around him and built an altar of twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel founded by the sons of Jacob. The abbreviated names on the altar in the tapestry refer to six of these: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali. Elijah then made a trench around the altar and ordered that barrels of water be poured over the sacrifice and the altar, which then flowed into the trench: this moat is also clearly represented in the tapestry. Elijah then called on God to let the people know that he was the Lord, “Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when the people saw it they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.” (I Kings 18.38-39). Elijah then told the people to kill all the prophets of Baal and commanded Ahab to get up, and eat and drink, as the drought and famine were over. The two tapestries at Lyme must originally have formed part of a larger series of designs telling the story of Elijah. The Prophet Elijah first appears in I King 17, warning King Ahab that there would be a drought, as Ahab had offended the Lord by allowing the worship of the false god Baal. Elijah then went into Cerith where he was fed by ravens, and then into Zarephath, where he was looked after by an old widow, returning three years later to find that there was a severe famine in Samaria. He then revealed himself to King Ahab and performed the miraculous sacrifice that is the subject of 500339.1. Later Elijah warned Ahab that he would be punished for his evil ways, and that his body would be eaten by dogs. After Ahab’s death Israel was ruled by his son Ahaziah, whose death Elijah also prophesied; this is represented in 500339.2, which also shows Elijah’s final ascent into heaven on a chariot of fire. Only one of the tapestries, 500339.2, retains part of its borders, which are composed of an architectural framework with a plinth at the bottom and the figures of two children carrying a tablet (on the right) and a cross (on the left), representing the Old and New Testaments, or Judaism and Christianity. This refers to Elijahs’ role as a precursor to both John the Baptist and Christ, and as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments. More complete weavings of the designs show that the tapestries were produced with no lower borders, but with upper borders consisting of swags of flowers illusionistically hanging over the main field. The two tapestries at Powis bear no makers’ marks. Related ‘Elijah’ tapestries have usually been attributed to Brussels, and dated to around 1650, but the series may in fact have been woven in Antwerp. One example from the series that was sold at Sotheby’s, 16 July 1935, lot 106, but whose current whereabouts is unknown, was described as being signed with the letters M, V and G. There was once a third tapestry from the ‘Elijah’ series at Lyme Park, representing ‘Elijah Asleep and the Angel’, but this does not survive. A number of other weavings of the series were recorded in private collections in Britain in the early twentieth century, all with the same borders as those at Lyme. The most complete was a set of six sold by the Marquess of Waterford at Christies, 18 December 1908 which included the following subjects: ‘Elijah and the Widow of Zarapeth’; ‘Elijah before Ahab’; ‘Elijah’s Sacrifice’; ‘Ahab and Jezebel’; ‘Elijah Asleep and the Angel’; and ‘Elijah’s Ascension to Heaven’. This set appeared again as a set of four, with some of the scenes now sewn together, with the American dealers French and Company in the early twentieth century (Getty Photo Archive nos. 0236322; 0236323; 0236324; 0236325). In the inventory of Lyme Park made in 1929 the two surviving ‘Elijah’ tapestries were hanging in the Evidence Room described as ‘Biblical Scenes – Elijah and the priests of Baal (measuring 12 foot by 6’ 6”) (Mortlake)’ and ‘Biblical Scenes – Elijah being carried up to heaven in the Chariot of Fire (measuring 13 ft. by 6’ 6”)’. A third tapestry from the set, described as ‘Biblical scenes – The angel ministering to Elijah under the Juniper tree (Mortlake)’ was in the Bright Gallery. The tapestries were valued at £400 each (Biffard, Robertson & Lucy 1929, pp. 32-33). It is possible that at least two from the set were already in the Evidence Room by 1879, when an inventory mentions “Old needlework tapestry to walls round room” (Sutton 1879, p. 210). Given that the Evidence Room (now Estate Office) is one of the new rooms created by Lewis Wyatt for Thomas Legh it is likely that the Elijah tapestries were introduced here by the latter. (Helen Wyld, 2010)
Provenance
At Lyme Park since at least 1929; transferred to National Trust ownership with the house in 1946.
Credit line
Lyme Park, the Newton Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Inscribed on the altar: RVB SIME LEV[I] BE[N] [D]AN NAPT
Makers and roles
possibly Antwerp , workshop
References
Thomas Sutton auctioneers, Lyme Hall, Disley, Stockport. Inventory of the Household Furniture, Pictures, Ornaments and Effects, July 1879 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