Museum News

Ecouen, Musée national de la Renaissance

Acquisition: two pieces of the Story of Diana (Anet).
Posted March 2007

Oudenarde

The city of Oudenaarde purchased two Trojan War pieces (Christies New York, September 28 september, 2006, lots 177-178).

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Acquisition: The Liberation of Oriane, from the series Amadis de Gaule, Delft, workshop François Spierinx, design by Karel I van Mander.
Entry by Tom Campbell in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 64, 2 (Fall 2006): 32-33.
posted December 2006

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

The Museum acquired The intervention by Artemis during the preparations of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia from The Story of Iphigeneia and Orestes series (September 28, 2006; Christie's, New York; 358 x600 cm). The series was woven between 1648 and 1662 by Pieter de Cracht in Gouda after designs by Salomon de Bray (attr.). The Rijksmuseum now has six tapestries that made part of the same suite which presumably counted eight pieces, as archival material shows that the two documented suites (sold to the elector of Brandenburg and to the Swedish crown) each comprised eight tapestries. The six Rijksmusem tapestries most likely belonged to one of these two editions.
For the series: see Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smit, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2004, cat. no. 62-a-e.

Ghent

The City of Ghent purchased a tapestry of the scattered set of the Lives of SS. Peter and Paul: Christ and Peter walking over the waters. The set was comprised of ten pieces and was woven in Brussels between 1563-1567 for the St. Peter Abbey in Ghent. The cartoons were designed by Peter de Kempeneer. It is the fourth piece that has returned to Ghent. Five other tapestries of the same set are in a French private collection.
For this set, see a.o.:
Marguerite Calberg, 'Episodes de l'Histoire des Saints Pierre et Paul. Tapisseries de Bruxelles tissées au XVIe siècle pour l'abbaye Saint-Pierre à Gand', Bulletin des Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire (Bruxelles) IV, 34 (1962): 63-110.
Guy Delmarcel, 'Peter de Kempeneer (Campana) as a Designer of Tapestry Cartoons', Artes Textiles X (1981): 155-162.

Lausanne, Fondation Toms Pauli
web site

La Fondation Toms Pauli a pour mission d’étudier, de conserver et de mettre en valeur les collections d’art textile ancien et moderne appartenant à l’Etat de Vaud. Ce patrimoine est constitué d’un important ensemble de tapisseries et de broderies européennes du 16e au 19e siècle légué par Mary Toms en 1994, ainsi que d’œuvres d’art textile contemporain (1961-1992) provenant de l’Association Pierre Pauli et de divers donateurs. La Fondation est également l’héritière des archives du Centre International de la Tapisserie Ancienne et Moderne (CITAM), organisateur des Biennales de la tapisserie de Lausanne de 1962 à 1995. Son centre de documentation est ouvert aux chercheurs. Installée à Lausanne, la Fondation ne possède pas encore d'espace de présentation permanent. Néanmoins, elle organise des expositions dans des musées suisses et étrangers et publie des catalogues. Les collections sont visibles lors de manifestations temporaires.

Madrid, Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas
Acquisition: The Vision of Ezekiel, with arms of Pope Leo X, model and cartoon by Tommaso Vincidor after Raphael, Brussels workshop of Pieter van Aelst, c. 1521.
The original canopy and only surviving component of Pope Leo X’s “letto da paramento”, the cartoon of which is preserved in Boughton House (identified and discussed by Thomas Campbell, The Burlington Magazine, July-August 1996, pp. 436-445, the cartoon at p.438). Campbell traced this highly important Raphael school tapestry, previously thought lost, in a Spanish collection in 2003. The tapestry was subsequently offered for sale to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, but the exportation license was denied by the Spanish authorities. Eventually, the Spanish Ministry of Culture acquired the tapestry, and it has now been entrusted to the Madrid museum.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Acquisition: Gathering of the Manna, a Florentine tapestry after Alessandro Allori, workshop of Guasparri di Bartolommeo Papini, ca. 1595-96.

Paris, Musée national du Moyen Age
Acquisition: La Pirouète (c. 1500), an emblematic tapestry based on the Ditz moraux pour faire tapisserie by Henri Baude. See entry by Viviane Huchard in La Revue des Musées de France LIV (April 2004): 93-94.

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans van Beuningen
Acquisition: The Wrath of Achilles, model by Peter Paul Rubens, Brussels, workshop Daniel Eggermans, around 1635.
A piece of the presumably first edition, formerly in a French private collection. It was shown in the exhibition Peter Paul Rubens, The Life of Achilles, Rotterdam 2003 (catalogue p.104-105). The Rotterdam museum owns Rubens’ original bozzetto of this tapestry.