Elijah’s Ascension to Heaven
possibly Antwerp
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1650 - circa 1670
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 6-7 warps per cm
Measurements
3920 x 2500 mm
Order this imageCollection
Lyme, Cheshire
NT 500339.2
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 6-7 warps per cm, Elijah’s Ascension to Heaven from a set of two of the Story of Elijah, Flemish, c. 1650 - 1670. To the right of centre Elijah, bearded and wearing a long robe, sits on a mound with his hands outstretched, a young angel hovering beside him and speaking in his ear. In the centre foreground a soldier approaches Elijah and along the lower edge of the tapestry the helmets of more soldiers can be seen. At the top left in the distance a crowd of people watch as Elijah ascends into heaven in a golden chariot drawn by two horses. The tapestry has the remains of two side borders composed of figures of children between architectural mouldings and surrounded by swags of fruit and flowers. Some of the right hand border is missing and the upper and lower edges of the tapestry have been cut off and attached to the sides of another tapestry at Lyme, no. 500313.1, one of the ‘Verdures with Pastoral Figures’ in the Morning Room.
Full description
After the death of King Ahab Israel was ruled by his son Ahaziah, who one day injured himself and sent his men in search of a prophet to tell whether he would live or die. Elijah intercepted Ahaziah’s messengers and sent them back to the King with the message: “Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?” (II Kings 3). When he received this message Ahaziah was immediately suspicious and asked the appearance of the man who had delivered it, and on hearing that “He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins”, he knew that it was Elijah. “Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou, man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said unto the captain of fifty, if I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.” (II Kings 9-10). The same happened when a second company of soldiers was sent to fetch Elijah, and when the third captain that was sent fell on his knees before Elijah and pleaded for his life. “And the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, go down with him: be not afraid of him.” (II Kings 15). This is the moment represented on the right hand side of the tapestry, with the third captain of fifty approaching Elijah in trepidation, and Elijah sitting on the hilltop with the angel of the Lord whispering in his ear. Elijah returned to Ahaziah with the captain, and told Ahaziah that he was going to die. Soon afterwards it was foretold to Elijah that he himself would die, and in the upper left hand corner of the tapestry we see him ascending to heaven. Elijah had told Elisha, his companion and successor, to leave him as he had been summoned by the Lord but Elisha refused, and the two went together to the river Jordan accompanied by “fifty men of the sons of prophets”. Elijah then smote the waters with his mantle and the river divided in two, allowing the two men to cross on dry land. “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” (II Kings 11). Elijah’s mantle fell down and Elisha took it as a sign that he was his successor. The tapestry shows Elijah ascending in the chariot with the mantle falling from his hand, and Elisha reaching up to catch it, while the fifty sons of the prophets look on. 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)
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