Man and Woman
probably Oudenaarde
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1570 - circa 1600
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm
Measurements
3350 x 2390 mm
Order this imageCollection
Packwood House, Warwickshire
NT 557861
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm, Man and Woman, probably Oudenaarde, c. 1570-1600. A rectangular tapestry panel with a man and a woman walking from right to left in a landscape. The man has a brown beard and wears a blue belted tunic with narrow gold edging and a turned down collar, a yellow cloak, and a turban on his head. He turns to speak to the woman who walks beside him, gesturing with his left hand. The woman wears a green robe gathered at the waist and the shoulders over a long blue skirt and yellow slashed sleeves, and a yellow cloth headdress over her blond hair. Immediately behind the couple is an oak tree, and to the right a short way off a group of two men and a women converse. In the distance on a hillside is a man who appears to be asking directions from a man and a woman. The border of the tapestry is intact on all four sides, and is composed of leaves interspersed with a variety of fruit on a yellow ground. Birds are perched among the leaves periodically and there are iris leaves growing at the lower corners. The overall tonality is yellowish with strong blues, but the greens have faded and there is no red.
Full description
The subject of this tapestry has been described as ‘Abraham and Sarah’, but there is no evidence for this, and it does not correspond to any known representation of Abraham. The tapestry must originally have formed part of a set, probably with a Biblical narrative, but in the absence of any other surviving pieces it is difficult to determine the subject. The tapestry was almost certainly woven in Oudenaarde in the second half of the sixteenth century. The two figures closely resemble, but in reverse, a pair of onlookers in a tapestry representing ‘Solomon making a Sacrifice to Gibon’, from a set of the ‘Story of Solomon’ bearing the mark of an unidentified Oudenaarde weaver of the mid sixteenth century (de Meûter 1999, p. 150). This does not help us to identify the subject of the tapestry at Packwood, as it contains no sacrifice. However the reappearance of this pair of figures is evidence of a tendency noted by de Meûter, for cartoon painters to re-use figures in more than one design (De Meûter 1999, p. 152). This practice was common not just in Oudenaarde but in many Netherlandish weaving centres. The tapestry at Packwood is stylistically similar to the Oudenarde ‘Story of Solomon’ tapestries, and to a number of other tapestry sets woven in the town at around the same time including a ‘Story of Moses’ and a ‘Story of Jacob’ (De Meûter 1999, pp. 148-154). These tapestries all have similar borders composed of leaves and fruit with iris leaves at the lower corners. (Helen Wyld, 2009)
Provenance
Given to the National Trust by Graham Baron Ash in 1941
Credit line
Packwood House, The Graham Baron Ash Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
probably Oudenaarde, workshop
References
De Meûter, 1998: Ingrid de Meûter, ‘Flemish Tapestries of the 16th and 17th Centuries in Great Britain and their Connection with Oudenaarde’, Bulletin de liaison du Centre International d’Étude des Textiles Anciens [CIETA], 75 (1998), pp. 97-109 de Meûter et al., 1999: Ingrid de Meûter, Martine Vanwelden et al., Tapisseries d'Audenarde du XVle au XVllle Siècle, Tielt 1999, pp. 149-154