Tapestry - Arcas is about to slay Callisto with an arrow

Textile and Costume Collection

Accession Nr.: 70.353.1
Artist/Maker:
Date of production:
(presumably)
Place of production: Brussels
Inscription: a bordűr jobb külső szegélyén feloldatlan mesterjegy
Materials: wool
Techniques: tapestry -weaving
Dimensions:
height: 267 cm
width: 357 cm
The tapestry - according to Andras Szilagyi — shows a scene from the story of "Callisto and Areas" (Ovid: Metamorphoses, II. 401—530.). Jove deceitfully seduces one of the nymphs of Diana, Callisto. Diana, as a punishment, expels the nymph from her followers, and after she has given birth to her son, Areas, the jealous Juno changes her into a bear in revenge. Areas growing up in ignorance of his mother, encounters her as a bear while out hunting, and intends to shoot her with an arrow. But Jove intervenes and raised them into the Galaxy, where they become two neighbouring stars. The scene is bordered on the left with a tree with clinging vegetation on its trunk, and on the right with high bushes and the trees of the central part of the picture. In the middle background a castle appears and hills fade into the distance. The composition shows the hand of a competent master the characteristic oak-tree on the left side and rendering of the landscape suggest a Flemish master. The woolly hair, the face with small eyes and snub-nose, the sketchy puttos of the border, and the festoons and columns, the prevalence of blue, green and ochre colours all point to a Brussels workshop. Tapestries of similar style, illustrating the story of David, are published by Blazkova from the collection of the Umeleckoprumyslove Muzeum in Prague, and she considers them to be works from Brussels from between 1625—1630. On the right, exterior edge of the border is an as yet unidentified master's mark. The mark may be connected with the workshop of Gaspar van Bruggen, and so the tapestry might have been made between 1640—1665.

Literature

  • Szerk.: András Edit: Ovidius Átváltozások című műve alapján készült 16-17. századi kárpitok a budapesti Iparművészeti Múzeum gyűjteményéből. Kárpit 2. Átváltozások. A szövött kárpit művészete egykor és ma. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2005. - 24-32. (László Emőke)
  • Szerk.: Szilágyi András, Péter Márta: Barokk és rokokó. Az európai iparművészet stíluskorszakai. Iparművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1990. - Nr. 5.19.
  • fényképész: László Emőke, Wagner Richárd: Képes kárpitok az Iparművészeti Múzeum gyűjteményében. I. 17-18. századi kárpitok. Iparművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1987. - Nr. 3.
  • László Emőke: Flamand és francia kárpitok Magyarországon. Corvina Kiadó, Budapest, 1980. - Nr. 56.