May
probably English
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1660 (circa) - circa 1690 (circa)
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm
Measurements
1.94 m (H); 1.48 m (W)
Place of origin
England
Collection
Lanhydrock, Cornwall
NT 885701
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm, May, probably English, c. 1660-1690. A gentleman and lady on horseback in sixteenth-century dress ride through a landscape, the lady holding a hawk on her wrist and carrying a branch. To the right there is a third horseman with his back to us. The tapestry has not borders but on the left there is part of a column with ivy growing around it, and on the right the inner edge of a border, consisting of a vertical band with a two-tone diagonal pattern. A strip of red canvas has been attached along the lower edge, and a series of brass rings along the upper edge. There are a number of large holes and slits in the surface of the tapestry, especially near the top. A brown paper label attached to the tapestry notes that it was brought to the house by Michael Trinick in 1992.
Full description
The tapestry 'May' at Lanhydrock derives from a series representing the twelve months of the year according to their typical countryside activities of each. The designs originate with a now lost set of early sixteenth-century Flemish tapestries, and were copied in England and the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. The fragment at Lanhydrock is likely to be English. The detail of a column with ivy growing around it, seen on the left hand side of the panel, appears frequently in late seventeenth-century English weavings of the designs, separating two scenes within a single tapestry. Two such examples are in the National Trust's collections: a set at Clandon Park woven at Mortlake in the 1660s or 1670s (no. 1441619), and a set at Ham House woven in Lambeth by Stephen de May between 1699 and 1714 (no. 1140555). For a full description of the genesis of the designs see Hefford 2006. (Helen Wyld, 2012)
Provenance
Brought to Lanhydrock by Michael Trinick in 1992
Makers and roles
probably English, workshop probably London, workshop
References
Hefford, 2006: Wendy Hefford, 'I Mesi di Mortlake, un serie di arazzi inglesi a Genova', in P Boccardo and C Di Fabio (eds.), Genova e l'Europa atlantica: opere, artisti, committenti, collezionisti, Milan 2006, pp. 167-181