Description
Tapestry from the Royal Manufacture of Gobelins, after Nicolas BERTIN (1667-1736) Apollo and the serpent Python Beginning of the XVIIIth century (wear, small repairs and restorations) Height : 3,18 m - Width : 3,35 m Materials and condition : woven in wool and silk, the tapestry has kept beautiful colors. This tapestry is part of the Metamorphoses hanging, the tapestries of which were made by different painters. The first hanging of the Metamorphoses was created around 1680, and five new tapestries of which the present subject were added from 1704. Nicolas BERTIN gave the models of Apollo and Python and Mercury and Argus. For details on the Metamorphoses hanging, see VITTET 2010 and FENAILLE 1903-1923. In FENAILLE, we learn that four tapestries of Apollo and the serpent Python were woven at the Gobelins with different dimensions and borders, one of which was made in 1714 for the king (Louis XIV who probably never saw it). In 1755, Louis XV had the complete hanging delivered to Madame de Pompadour who settled it a few years later, after some repair work. This hanging disappeared. On the three tapestries quoted by FENAILLE in 1904, the one of the collection VEYVIALLE is the only one of the three whose dimensions correspond to the present tapestry. Iconography : Apollo wanted to found a sanctuary at the foot of Parnassus and, near a spring, he met the snake Python. It was a dragon which massacred men and animals. Apollo killed it with his arrows. Bibliography : Maurice FENAILLE, 1903-1923, Etat général de la Manufacture des Gobelins depuis ses origines jusqu'à nos jours (1600-1900), vol.III, pp.121 to 132. Jean VITTET, 2014, Les Gobelins au siècle des lumières, un âge d'or de la manufacture, pp. 302 to 305. Provenance: Private collection. Most probably former Veyvialle collection (in 1893).
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Tapestry from the Royal Manufacture of Gobelins, after Nicolas BERTIN (1667-1736) Apollo and the serpent Python Beginning of the XVIIIth century (wear, small repairs and restorations) Height : 3,18 m - Width : 3,35 m Materials and condition : woven in wool and silk, the tapestry has kept beautiful colors. This tapestry is part of the Metamorphoses hanging, the tapestries of which were made by different painters. The first hanging of the Metamorphoses was created around 1680, and five new tapestries of which the present subject were added from 1704. Nicolas BERTIN gave the models of Apollo and Python and Mercury and Argus. For details on the Metamorphoses hanging, see VITTET 2010 and FENAILLE 1903-1923. In FENAILLE, we learn that four tapestries of Apollo and the serpent Python were woven at the Gobelins with different dimensions and borders, one of which was made in 1714 for the king (Louis XIV who probably never saw it). In 1755, Louis XV had the complete hanging delivered to Madame de Pompadour who settled it a few years later, after some repair work. This hanging disappeared. On the three tapestries quoted by FENAILLE in 1904, the one of the collection VEYVIALLE is the only one of the three whose dimensions correspond to the present tapestry. Iconography : Apollo wanted to found a sanctuary at the foot of Parnassus and, near a spring, he met the snake Python. It was a dragon which massacred men and animals. Apollo killed it with his arrows. Bibliography : Maurice FENAILLE, 1903-1923, Etat général de la Manufacture des Gobelins depuis ses origines jusqu'à nos jours (1600-1900), vol.III, pp.121 to 132. Jean VITTET, 2014, Les Gobelins au siècle des lumières, un âge d'or de la manufacture, pp. 302 to 305. Provenance: Private collection. Most probably former Veyvialle collection (in 1893).
