Tapestry - Merury hands over the infant Bacchus to the nymphs

The tapestry used to be part of a series of mythological scenes containing eight pieces. The most famous and - in the baroque period - the most favourite literary adaptation of the story of Semele is to be read in Ovid's Metamorphoses (III. 287-315). The mother of Bacchus entreated Jove (Jupiter) to appear to her. He fulfilled her wish and she was burnt in the celestial light surrounding the God. Jove had torn the child out the womb of his mother and until his birth he put him in his thigh. Later the child was sent with Jove's envoy, Mercury to the Nymphs living in the Nysa region to bring him up. In the middle of the tapestry Mercury is handing over the child on the right is the group of Nymphs, on the left Silenus enjoys the cool of the stream. The cave of the Nymphs is in the back-ground, and is covered with scrolls and foliage and ripe bunches of grapes, before it stands a table groaning with fruit and jugs. On the trimmings are garlands, fruit dishes, birds, monkeys above and below in the middle an owl is flanked by a lion and a dog. In the last quarter of the 17th century tapestry weaving in Brussels was greatly influenced by the Gobelin Manufacture of Paris. This French influence manifests itself in the love of mythological and allegorical themes, in figures shown in antique costumes, in the landscapes typical of Poussin and Lorrain, and in the use of brighter colours. One of the most creative cartoonists of this style was Louis van Schoor (+1702), the designer of these series of tapestries. He used as models the engravings of Jean Dughet and Jean Versini, which had been made after the painting of Nicolas Poussin — The Birth of Bacchus, 1657. The trimmings are new, so there is no mark. On the basis of its mark - I.V.D.B. - the complete series in Vienna was woven in the Brussels workshop of Jacob van der'Borght (1676-1710) about 1700. Similar tapestries: Poznan, Muzeum Narodowe.