ROMULUS AND REMUS, A NARRATIVE CLASSICAL TAPESTRY, MADRID, WOVEN BY ARTESANÍA ESPAÑOLA DATED MCMXLI (1941), COPY AFTER A 16TH CENTURY (1525-1530) BRUSSELS CARTOON, FROM THE CIRCLE OF BERNARD VAN ORLEY (CA. 1492-1542), BORDER DESIGN AFTER JOSS VAN LIERE

ROMULUS AND REMUS, A NARRATIVE CLASSICAL TAPESTRY, MADRID, WOVEN BY ARTESANÍA ESPAÑOLA DATED MCMXLI (1941), COPY AFTER A 16TH CENTURY (1525-1530) BRUSSELS CARTOON, FROM THE CIRCLE OF BERNARD VAN ORLEY (CA. 1492-1542), BORDER DESIGN AFTER JOSS VAN LIERE

woven with wool, silk and metal-thread highlights, depicting King Amulius giving the order to two slaves to put the twin babies in a basket and leave them at the Tiber’s edge, where it is carried down to Cermalus on the Velabro swamp between the Palatine Hill and the Capitoline Hill, and with the waters retreating, the basket stops under a fig tree (ficus ruminalis), where a she-wolf (Lupa) finds them and suckles them, and where in turn they are later found by Faustulus (King Amulis’s shepherd and swineherd) and his wife Acca Larentia, who decided to raise them as their sons, and they grow up to be successful shepherds in their own right, and these individual episodes from the story are set within the river landscape and country, all within an exuberant fruiting and floral four-sided border, the top centred with an entablature with pale blue ground and Latin inscription, ROMVL’ ET REM’ PROIICIŪTUR Ī TYBERI LUPA NUTRIT TRADŪTUR LAURĒTIAE, FIŪT PASTORES VENATU PRAEDAQ INSIGNES (Romulus and Remus are abandoned on the Tiber, a she-wolf feeds them, Acca Larentia is entrusted with their care, they become shepherds renowned for the hunt and the prey), flanked by kneeling winged putti, with the allegorical figure of a winged Diana carrying a bow in the upper-left corner, Ceres with a cornucopia in the upper right corner, two further female figures in the lower left hand corner, and a seated female, and a man playing a flute in the lower right corner, with yellow and madder outer selvedges; woven in metal thread with manufacturer, Artesania Espanol - Madrid, date, MCMXLI (1941) and weaver's cyphers of 'A', and 'fff'

approximately 439cm. high, 443cm. wide; 14ft. 5in., 14ft. 6in.

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Condition Report:
Overall measurements: 443cm across the top, 442cm across the bottom, 442cm along left side, 439cm along the right side.

Balanced colour overall. There are some small horizontal splits in the sky in the top right corner, which can be consolidated. The outer madder red selvedge has some small holes, and loss, and there are horizontal sections of weakness and loss, for example in a horizontal line between colour changes of the outer selvedge and top of the entablature. There are some small holes in areas, such as the red leg of male figure in far left corner, and in the rocks in the bottom right corner of the tapestry, and some others in borders, only noticeable on close inspection. The figure in the lower left corner has a section where there is a hole and the wool threads are loose and have pulled through to the front, and it is in need of some attention. Overall in good condition, it is the outer selvedge and lower border in the main that have the small areas noted above. The tapestry has an old cotton lining and thin rope/twine swagged across the top. It is recommended that Velcro should be attached across the top for hanging in the future. It has been recently professionally cleaned and treated.
Extensive use of metal thread across the tapestry, and border, and to all the lettering in the inscription and lettering and cypher in the selvedge.

Provenance:
Property from a Spanish Ducal Family;

Sold Sotheby's London, Royal & Noble, 17th January 2019, lot 123 (£22,500).