Remarkable and rare fragment of a silk needlepoint hanging celebrating the art of Falconry, France or Flanders, second half of the 16th century. Very beautiful representation of a peregrine falcon with a spotted breast, posed on a beam with its feathered chaperon at its side in the center of elegant scrolls of flowering branches of a wide variety of species newly known at the time: carnations, tulips, pansies but also roses, dahlias or irises embroidered in polychrome silks in the past encroaching on hemp canvas. Background entirely embroidered in golden yellow silk (significant wear, gaps in the material leaving a glimpse of the layout or poncif. Canvas lining traces of upholsterer's nails on the edge and indications of a probable previous use as a cushion, collection label sewn on the reverse " The parrot and the owl, 2 cushionsspanish or Italian about 1700 ". Dim : 70 x 83 cm (without the glass frame of 80 x 90 cm) Embroidery model probably inspired by the illustrated plates taken from " The History of the Nature of Birds with their descriptions and naive portraits taken from nature " in 7 books, by the famous naturalist Pierre Belon du Mans (1518-1564) published for the first time in 1555 and whose anthologies widely distributed afterwards could have been used as a model for the embroiderers of this work as well as its counterpart mentioned in the label indicating " The owl " and the " parrot " (?)... Thanks to Danièle Veron-Denise, Honorary Curator at the Château de Fontainebleau, who drew our attention to this probable source, already mentioned in the catalog of the exhibition "Livres en broderie", Arsenal, 1995.