Tomyris displaying the Head of Cyrus
Category
Tapestries
Date
1575 - 1625
Materials
Textile
Measurements
3420 x 4030 mm
Order this imageCollection
Cliveden Estate, Buckinghamshire
NT 766288
Summary
Brussels tapestry backed with magents cotton. Tomyris at centre, her maid servant approaching from right and handing her a bow, and looks to left where Cyrus' head is presented on a charger. Behind her, troops in various fighting positions. Set before wooded landscape and within a wide border. Bottom border of Cupids among flowering branches, the others with vases of flowers, a medallion reserved on either side, each enclosing a couple within a landscape. The iconography is in fact Queen Tomyris ordering the head of Cyrus to be put in a vessel filled with blood. Judith with the head of Holofernes is shown in relief on the vessel. the border being all patched and pieced together one cannot be certain whether it belongs to this tapestry. It is not the border found on the first sets of the series, made in the workshops of Nicholas Leyniers and Jan vantiegen in about the 1560s. this tapestry is likely to be end of the 16th century, beginning of 17th, and is probably from another Brussels workshop.