The Spanish Royal Tapestries

CHAPTER V

RENAISSANCE TAPESTRIES

Raphael was not accustomed to designing cartoons for tapestry. His methods were unsuitable for translation into fabric. He set the tapissiere problems to solve in paint. Only the wonderful skill of the Flemish workmen enabled them to produce tapestries that astonished Europe. But a new method had to be adopted. Raphael had planned out both his cartoons and his borders in every detail. Nothing was left to the tapissier but to copy with the minutest care every line, every shade of colour expressed by the painter. The artist tapissier became under this new fashion only a master craftsman. The most pleasing feature of the Gothic tapestries disappear—the riot of millefleurs, and the spasmodic intrusion of fascinating little dogs and wild animals.

But if there were losses there were compensating gains. The whole art of the Italian cartoonist was freer, more vital and less stilted than that of his northern neighbour. The crowded figures disappeared and their place was taken by one group accompanied only by a few subordinate figures, but the central figures were perfect in their form. The Gothic buildings of the background gave way to a rich Renaissance architecture. The old woodland flowers were replaced by the luxuriant and exotic verdure of the south. That the methods introduced by Raphael should degenerate in the hands of artists of less genius was inevitable, and in course of time the tapissier was no longer capable of improving the original design.

Group 18. The Acts of the Apostles (10 Tapestries)

These tapestries are not the original ones woven for Pope Leo X, but are reproductions which (from the absence of any tapestry mark) must have been woven from the original cartoons within a very short space of time. These cartoons, as has been said, were the work of Raphael Santi assisted by his pupils. The original tapestries were executed by Pierre van Aelst in gold, silk, and wool, under the supervision of Bernard van Orley, who had been the pupil of the great Italian painter. They were painted in 1519. Pierre van Aelst had been tapestry maker to Philip le Bel and Charles V., and was probably the foremost weaver of his time in Brussels. More than one reproduction was made, and it is probable that one fell into the hands of the Emperor Charles. They are not mentioned, however, before the inventories made by Philip II. The tenth piece in the original series is not found in this collection on account of its size, and may not have been included in the reproduction. A similar series was in the possession of Henry VIII. of England and was bought at the sale of Charles I.’s effects by Marquis del Carpio. It was inherited by the house of Alba in 1662, and sold in 1823 to the English Consul in Catalonia. George IV. refused to purchase it and it finally reached the Berlin Museum.

For a time the cartoons of Raphael were lost. Seven of them, however, were purchased by Charles I. on the advice of Rubens and ordered to be reproduced at Mortlake. The cartoons are now in the South Kensington Museum.

The tapestries represent the following subjects:

Tapestry No. 1. The miraculous draught of fishes.

Tapestry No. 2. St. Peter chosen by Christ as the head of the Church.

Tapestry No. 3. The miracle of the paralytic.

Tapestry No. 4. The death of Ananias.

Tapestry No. 5. The death of St. Stephen.

Tapestry No. 6. The conversion of St. Paul.

Tapestry No. 7. The blindness of Elymas.

Tapestry No. 8. St. Paul and St. Barnabas at Lystra.

Tapestry No. 9. St. Paul preaches at the Areopagus in Athens.

Group 19. Vertumnus and Pomona (6 Tapestries)

Despite an occasional lapse in drawing, this series of tapestries is one of the finest examples of pure Renaissance workmanship to be found in the Spanish royal collection. The story, of course, is taken from Ovid, and was a favourite one with the Flemish weavers. The tapestries show the true Renaissance love of the open country and lovely gardens with a wealth of flowers and foliage. They are purely decorative in intention, and the figures are merely accessory.

No less than four copies of this series are in the Madrid collection. The series reproduced in this volume was woven at Brussels and purchased by the Emperor Charles V. at Anvers in 1546. It is in silk and wool, heavily enriched with gold, and was the original from which the others were copied.

Two other copies, also woven in gold, were made by Pannemaker at the command of Philip II. These are hung in the State dining-hall of the palace. The fourth copy, in silk and wool only, was made for John of Austria, and by him bequeathed to Philip II.

The Story of Scipio Africanus (6 Tapestries)

This fine series of tapestries offers an interesting contrast with the other historical series already described, The Conquest of Tunis. The story of Scipio is in pure Renaissance style, and though the designer of the cartoons is unknown, they show very strongly the influence of Giulio Romano, and may even have proceeded from his pencil. Only one piece of the tapestry bears a weaver’s mark, which has not been deciphered. They were inherited by Charles V. from his sister, Mary of Hungary, on her death in 1558.

The tapestries represent incidents in the life of Publius Cornelius Scipio, the elder, surnamed Africanus from his triumphs against the Carthaginians. Scipio was one of Rome’s greatest generals, and also a man of very considerable culture, who wrote his own memoirs in Greek. He was also an accomplished orator and was popularly supposed to hold direct communication with the gods.

The tapestries deal mostly with Scipio’s campaigns in Spain and Africa. The year after his father’s death he had offered himself for the command in Spain. In spite of his youth he was unanimously elected. He had previously fought at the disastrous battles of Ticinus, the Trebia, and Cannæ.

All Spain south of the Ebro was in the hands of the Carthaginians, but the three great Punic generals were preoccupied with revolts in Africa and were in disagreement amongst themselves. Taking advantage of this, Scipio unexpectedly attacked and captured New Carthage, a large supply of war materials falling into his hands. This victory he followed up in 209 B.C. by driving Hasdrubal from Barcelona and the upper Guadalquivir.

After further victories in Spain Scipio returned to Rome and was elected Consul for Sicily. In 204 B.C. he again sailed for Africa and landed near Utica. He destroyed two combined armies of the Carthaginians and the Numidians, and after peace negotiations were finally broken off gained a crushing victory over Hannibal near Zama. This gained him the surname of Africanus.

Some years later Scipio was charged together with his brother with peculation. On the day of his trial, however, by reminding the people that this was the anniversary of Zama he was acquitted amid great acclamations. He then retired into private life.

The tapestries represent:

Tapestry No. 1. Siege and assault of Carthage by Scipio Africanus.

Tapestry No. 2. Scipio gives up his betrothed.

Tapestry No. 3. The Romans penetrate into the camp of Hasdrubal.

Tapestry No. 4. Battle of Zama and defeat of Hannibal.

Tapestry No. 5. The triumph of Scipio.

Tapestry No. 6. The banquet.

Monkeys or Grotesque Figures (10 Tapestries)

These fine Flemish tapestries were added to the royal collection at Madrid by Philip II. They are of exquisite workmanship and are heavily enriched with threads of gold. There are ten pieces in the series, four of which being hung on the walls of the palace cannot be here reproduced.

These grotesque figures form an ideal tapestry design. “In the centre of each tapestry,” says the Count Valencia de Don Juan, “there is a light and elegant bower of trellis-work, formed by arches, scrolls, and caryatids; the ribbon surrounding it is formed of flowers, fruit, and animals, amongst which frolic monkeys and dogs.” The borders are enriched with mythological figures.

The tapestries were woven by Hector Vuyens, who made his own designs.

Group 20. The Story of Cyrus the Great (8 Tapestries)

These tapestries, especially remarkable for their beautiful borders, were woven probably by Nicolas Leiniers, a well-known tapissier of the sixteenth century. They bear the Brussels mark, but the designer of the cartoons is unknown. They are carried out in silk and wool, enriched with gold and silver thread. The tapestries passed into the possession of Philip II., and are known to have been used in the funeral ceremonies of Francis II. of France. There is in existence the account which was rendered by Philip’s tapestry maker to his master for the transportation of the tapestries from Madrid to Toledo, where the funeral took place.

The tapestries represent episodes in the life of the great Persian conqueror, and certain of the legends that were current about his parentage. The designer of the cartoons seems to have followed the Thucedidean account of the delivering of the boy Cyrus to a shepherd, and his subsequent recognition by Astyages. Cyrus’s wars against the people of Lydia and his capture of Crœsus are, of course, historic. There is a legend related by some of the early historians that Cyrus desired to put Crœsus to death at the stake, a proceeding which would have been directly contrary to the principles of the Zoroastrian religion. The designer of the tapestries appears to have got hold of a distorted form of this story in the fifth panel of this series.

The ghastly end imagined by the cartoonist for the conqueror is wholly fictitious. It is probable that Cyrus was killed actually on the field of battle.

Group 21. The Story of Diana or Artemis (7 Tapestries)

It is under this name that this series of tapestries is classed in the inventories. On the plates of the pieces themselves, however, only the name, Diana, is employed. The series is the only one of French origin in the Spanish royal collection. It is from the Gobelins looms, which were established in 1603 by Van der Planken and Mare de Comano by contract with Henry IV. on the settlement of the Civil Wars.

The life of Diana was a favourite subject of the French tapestry weavers from this time onward, and the pieces were eagerly purchased by the ladies who enjoyed the favour of the Navarrois king. Guiffrey gives a detailed account of all these series in his large Histoire de la Tapisserie en France.

The designer of the series in the royal collection is unknown. It is a fine example of the florid art of the Renaissance. The borders are especially fine, containing medallions supported by nymphs and satyrs garlanded with fruit and flowers. In the orders of two of the plates are monograms of silk and gold similar to that in Les Noces de l’Empereur Otton in the National Museum at Munich. Coats-of-arms are seen on the scrolls that surmount the panels. In the centre are the arms of Colonna with a ducal crown; to the right a chequered shield with argent and purple squares; to the left an escutcheon carrying two wolves.

The subjects of the different tapestries are as follow:

(1) Latona changing the labourers into frogs.

(2) Diana surrounded by dogs.

(3) Diana with nymphs resting in a wood.

(4) Diana begs from Jupiter eternal maidenhood.

(5) Niobe dissuades the people from sacrificing to Latona.

(6) Diana and Apollo slay the children of Niobe.

(7) Diana approves Meleager’s design of offering a boar’s head to Alithea.

There is another plate referring to the same subject which represents the birth of Diana.

Group 22. Tapestries of the Chamber of Charles III. (2 Tapestries)

On the completion of the new palace of Madrid in 1764, Charles III. ordered his bedroom to be decorated with tapestries to the number of seventy-seven pieces. These, of which the two plates reproduced here are a fair example, were specially woven at the royal factory at Madrid. They are all of rich materials and fine workmanship, and were used, as well for hangings as for the covering of chairs and couches. The tapestries were designed by Antoine Anglois. The two here reproduced are woven in silk and gold. They were used as a curtain to the balcony of the King’s bedroom and as a counterpane and bolster-cover for the royal bed.

It was owing to the interest taken by this monarch in the art of tapestry weaving that the factory at Madrid was placed under the supervision of that fine artist, Raphael Menos.

Group 23. The Spheres

This boldly planned and finely executed series is composed of three tapestries. The name of the designer of the cartoons is unknown, but he was evidently inspired by the Italian Renaissance. The figures are anatomically correct, and many of them were copied from well-known pictures.

No. 1 shows Hercules upholding the world, and bears the inscription, Magna Virtus sed Alienæ obnoxia.

No. 2 represents Atlas bearing the Universe on his shoulders.

No. 3 represents Ferdinand and Isabella enthroned as monarchs of the whole world.