A Brussels Grotesque Tapestry from the Series The Elements

By Jodocus de Vos, after engravings by Jean I Bérain and Hans Vredeman de Vries, First Half 18th Century

woven in wool and silk, depicting the element ‘Earth’, with an architectural strapwork pergola surmounted by a vase bearing a scrollwork cartouche inscribed 'TERRA,' flanked by seated Bacchic figures, within the trompe l’oeil pergola suspending a canopy, beneath which sit three drinking figures, flanked to both sides by pilasters, stairs carrying figures bringing further food and drink, to the sides balconies with musicians, in the lower foreground dead game, vegetables, fruit, bottles and barrels of wine, representing the spoils of the element Earth, on a field of elaborate strapwork decorated with scrolling vine, flowers and animals, within a simulated picture frame border, the brown outer slip with the Brussels town mark and with the weaver’s initials ‘I.D.VOS’.
Height 12 feet 9 1/2 inches x width 12 feet 4 inches.

Property from a Private Family Trust

This lot is located in Chicago.

Provenance:

Private Collection

Note:

The town mark and weaver’s signature clearly identify this striking tapestry as a creation of the celebrated Brussels weaver Jodocus de Vos (1661/62-1734), who supplied tapestry sets to the Duke of Marlborough, Fürst von Schwarzenberg and the Holy Roman Emperor. With its strapwork elements, symmetric terraced staging, incorporation of arabesques, animals and putti, and their setting against a soft monochrome font, de Vos conceived here a spectacular tapestry, using and adopting the grotesque vocabulary known from Gobelins and Beauvais designs. Little is known of the historic origin or commission for this tapestry; however, Koenraad Brosens (see T.P. Campbell et all., Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, p. 482) mentions historic documents referring to two sets by Jodocus de Vos which might be connected: one is titled ‘Grotesques with Ovid’s Metamorphoses’, dated ca. 1730, the other ‘The Elements’, of ca. 1735.

A Brussels Grotesque Tapestry from the Series The Elements