The Abduction of Helen
probably Flemish
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1550 - circa 1620
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 4-4½ warps per cm
Measurements
2060 x 1840 mm
Order this imageCollection
Packwood House, Warwickshire
NT 557864
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 4-4½ warps per cm, The Abduction of Helen (possibly), probably Flemish, circa 1550-1620. A small bright blue and green tapestry with figures by a sea shore. The main scene involves a woman being led towards a rowing boat by a man in a plumed helmet. In the boat an oarsman stands holding a tall oar, and another figure reaches out his or her arms towards the woman, who turns her head away. To the left are more figures on the sea shore including a woman in a blue cloak, a man with a shield slung across his back and a bearded man in the left foreground who turns and reaches out to something that is cut of by the left edge of the tapestry. In the foreground below the rowing boat another bearded man in military dress bends over to lift a large bundle. Along the bottom of the tapestry are small leafy plants. The top part of the design is taken up by water which is rendered in blue zig-zags, and on the horizon there are two ships with oars and shields along their sides. The tapestry has been cut down possibly on all four sides and has no borders. A brown wool repp galloon has been attached around the edges.
Full description
The subject of this tapestry is uncertain but it may represent the Abduction of Helen, the event that started the Trojan War. Helen, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, was renowned for her magnificent beauty and after being courted by many suitors she was finally married to Menelaus, King of Sparta. However the goddess Aphrodite had promised Helen to the Trojan prince Paris, after he had chosen her as the fairest of the gods and awarded her the golden apple in a contest on Mount Olympus. While Menelaus was absent Paris travelled to Sparta and took Helen with him by boat back to Troy, but the various sources disagree as to whether she went with him willingly. Helen’s abduction features quite commonly in narrative cycles of the Trojan War in tapestry and other media. The composition of the present tapestry is similar to a tapestry with the mark of the Brussels weaver Martin Reymbouts (sold Sotheby’s 10.06.1932, lot 156; another version, now untraced, is recorded in the Getty Photo Study Collection, image no. 0240961). The Reymbouts tapestry has the standing Helen being led by Paris towards a rowing boat on the right, tilting her head back towards an attendant, whilst one of Paris’s soldiers reaches out to her from the boat, in which an oarsman also sits resting his oar on the shore. The figures of Paris and Helen are similar to the central figures of the tapestry at Packwood, and although the pose of the figure reaching out from the boat is also similar, in the Packwood tapestry this figure could be female. Similar figures of Paris and Helen appear again in a tapestry of the early seventeenth century, one of a set originally presented by Louis XIII of France to Francesco Barberini, but in this version the composition is reversed and substantially altered. Another tapestry woven in Delft in around 1630 has Paris and Helen followed to the rowing boat by soldiers laden with spoil, including one bending down to pick up a large bundle, similar to the man in the foreground at Packwood (Hennel-Bernasikowa 1994, pp. 106-107 and pl. XIX). All three tapestries contain most of the basic elements seen the tapestry at Packwood: Paris leading Helen to a small boat while his companions fight off the Greeks; Helen’s handmaidens looking on and weeping, and the Trojan boats moored in the background. The tapestry is coarsely woven and the rendering of the sea and other elements is highly stylised, however the composition has great vitality and the colours, especially the blues and greens, are unusually vibrant. The tapestry must have been woven in one of the smaller Netherlandish or French weaving centres at some point during the late sixteenth or early century, but it does not closely resemble the typical products of any of these centres. It is possible that the design derive either from a finer tapestry or from a second-hand cartoon that has been simplified. (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 Flemish, workshop
References
Hennel-Bernasikowa 1994 Maria Hennel-Bernasikowa, Gobeliny Katedry Wawelskiej, Cracow 1994, pp. 106-107, pl XIX