The Kindness of Rebecca
Bruges
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1650 - circa 1660
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm
Measurements
3.08 m (H); 3.80 m (W)
Place of origin
Bruges (Belgium)
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516751
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 7 warps per cm, The Kindness of Rebecca, Bruges, c. 1650-1660. In the centre Eliezer, wearing a light blue tunic, drinks from a large jug offered by Rebecca, who wears a white and gold satin dress and a red cloak. Droplets of water fall from Eliezer's mouth and with his right hand he offers jewellery to Rebecca. Behind the pair are the heads of camels laden with baggage, and on the far left a vine-clad tree trunk with a spring of water flowing from a rock beneath. In the background in the centre a small boy sits on the back of another camel and two men stand by, and to the right the view extends to a distant town. The rich borders are composed of twisted columns and garlands of flowers at the sides, fruit and flowers along the bottom and hanging garlands at the top with a central cartouche with the inscription 'AFFABILITAS / REBECCAE / gen: xxiii.'. There are details of winged cherubs heads at the corners and along the horizontal borders.
Full description
The meeting of Rebecca and Eliezer occurs in chapter 24 of the book of Genesis. The aged Abraham, feeling his death approaching, sent his trusted servant Eliezer back to his home land to find a wife for his son Isaac, with gifts of camels and other goods. As Eliezer approached the city of Nahor he reached a well, where he prayed to the Lord that the first damsel who offered him water to drink would be the appointed wife of Isaac. Before he had finished speaking Eliezer saw Rebecca, and ran to meet her and asked her for water. Rebecca let Eliezer drink from her pitcher, and then brought water for the camels to drink as well. Eliezer discovered that she was the daughter of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, which confirmed to him that she was the ordained wife of Isaac. The tapestry at Anglesey Abbey comes from a series of 'Old Testament Heroines', woven in Bruges in the second half of the seventeenth century. In another version of 'The Kindness of Rebecca' formerly with Galerie Chevalier, Paris, the inscriptions on the borders are more extensive, including a quotation from the Proverbs and another from the Book of Genesis (Delmarcel 1999, p. 275). As many as eight subjects from the 'Old Testament Heroines' series have been identified, each presenting a woman from the Old Testament as an embodiment of a particular virtue. In the present case Rebecca is presented as the embodiment of Kindness; other tapestries in the series show the 'The Wisdom of the Queen of Sheba', 'The Fortitude of Judith', 'The Piety of Hannah', 'The Caution of Abigail', 'The Chastity of Susannah', 'The Counsel of Deborah', 'The Goodwill of Esther' (Delmarcel and Duverger 1987, pp. 491-512). The designer of the 'Old Testament Heroines' is unknown, but a number of the scenes take their principal figures from prints after Peter Paul Rubens. The theme of the 'Old Testament Heroines' series is related to the popular trope of the 'Nine Worthies', a collection of men from Classical history and the bible who were celebrated as representing the essential virtues of public life. The Nine Worthies frequently appeared in manuscripts, prints and tapestries from the medieval period onwards, and later on parallel series of virtuous women were devised. A series of 'Virtuous Men' was woven in Bruges at the same time at the 'Old Testament Heroines', and the two suites may have been intended to compliment each other. Sequences of virtuous women were especially popular in tapestry at the end of the seventeenth century, and a tapestry from another series, woven in the French town of Aubusson, also survives at Anglesey Abbey ('Cleopatra', no. 516795) The beautiful borders on the 'Rebecca' tapestry, with their twisted columns and rich garlands of fruit and flowers, are found on a number of other tapestry series woven in Bruges after c. 1650, including the 'Seven Liberal Arts' after designs by Cornelis Schut, and the 'Virtuous Men' mentioned above. They ultimately derive from Rubens's designs for the 'Triumph of the Eucharist' series, completed in the 1620s. The tapestry at Anglesey Abbey is not signed, but other examples of the 'Old Testament Heroines' carry the mark of the town of Bruges, a weaver's bobbin and a Gothic letter 'b'. Bruges was one of the smaller tapestry producing towns of the Netherlands and few of their tapestries were exported, making them rare in this country. 'The Kindness of Rebecca' is the only Bruges tapestry in the National Trust's collection. Bruges tapestries are characterised by outstanding design and rich colours, both evident here. The exuberant borders are typical, as are the rich red, blue, green and gold tones which have faded only minimally. In 1691 a French weaver recorded that Bruges workshops operated high-warp looms and used fine wine-red colours, but that their coarse warp threads and careless finishing could let them down (Delmarcel 1999, p. 277). Although the designs of the 'Old Testament Heroines' are partly taken from prints, their monumental scale and lively depiction also distinguish them from many of the tapestries made elsewhere in the Netherlands. This tapestry and another now at Anglesey Abbey, 'The Meeting of Hero and Leander' (no. 516796) were sent to Lord Fairhaven's mother, Cara Leyland Broughton, on approval in 1922. The present tapestry was described as "A seventeenth century Brussels panel, 'Rebecca at the Well'" and priced at £600. The letter accompanying the tapestries promised a 10% discount if cash was paid and if both tapestries were bought (copy of letter held at Anglesey Abbey). (Helen Wyld, 2011)
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
In cartouche in upper border: 'AFFABILITAS / REBECCAE / gen: xxiii
Makers and roles
Bruges , workshop
References
Delmarcel, 1999: Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt 1999 Delmarcel, 1997: Guy Delmarcel, 'Brugse Wandtapijten na tien jaar. Niewe kunstwerken en toeschrijvengen', Jaarboek 995-6. Stadt Brugge. Bruges, 1997, pp. 191-215, 326-77 Delmarcel and Duverger, 1987: Guy Delmarcel and Erik Duverger, Bruges et la Tapisserie, exh. cat. Musée Gruuthuse and the Musée Memling, Bruges, 1987
