Null Panel of tapestry from the Manufacture Royale d'Aubusson, late 17th century…
Description

Panel of tapestry from the Manufacture Royale d'Aubusson, late 17th century. "The wedding of Paris and Hélène". Height : 235cm ; Width : 360cm. Technical characteristics : Wool and silk. Part of a series of 8 paintings on the story of Paris and Hélène, probably from the workshops of Jacques de Clarasvaux after cartoons by the King's painter, Isaac Moillon (1614-1673). The wedding sequence between the Trojan Pâris and the Greek Hélène sows the seeds of the Trojan War. Here, the young couple are surrounded by Paris' parents, Priam and Hecuba, and introduced to foreign guests. The hanging would have comprised seven or eight pieces, and this scene would have followed the one depicting "The Judgment of Paris". While specialists suggest that Isaac Moillon, the main painter working for the Manufactures de la Marche, is the author of the models for these tapestries, the theme of which is largely unknown in Parisian workshops, it is clear that this tapestry is not the only one in the collection. A panel similar to the one here is in the Château de Gramont collection. It should be noted that a series of identical tapestries is mentioned in the crown inventory of 1671 (wear and maintenance restorations).

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Panel of tapestry from the Manufacture Royale d'Aubusson, late 17th century. "The wedding of Paris and Hélène". Height : 235cm ; Width : 360cm. Technical characteristics : Wool and silk. Part of a series of 8 paintings on the story of Paris and Hélène, probably from the workshops of Jacques de Clarasvaux after cartoons by the King's painter, Isaac Moillon (1614-1673). The wedding sequence between the Trojan Pâris and the Greek Hélène sows the seeds of the Trojan War. Here, the young couple are surrounded by Paris' parents, Priam and Hecuba, and introduced to foreign guests. The hanging would have comprised seven or eight pieces, and this scene would have followed the one depicting "The Judgment of Paris". While specialists suggest that Isaac Moillon, the main painter working for the Manufactures de la Marche, is the author of the models for these tapestries, the theme of which is largely unknown in Parisian workshops, it is clear that this tapestry is not the only one in the collection. A panel similar to the one here is in the Château de Gramont collection. It should be noted that a series of identical tapestries is mentioned in the crown inventory of 1671 (wear and maintenance restorations).

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French Aubusson tapestry, 19th century. "Landscape with castle". Hand-knotted wool. Measurements: 215 x 296 cm. The refinement of this hand-woven tapestry testifies to the high quality of Aubusson tapestries. A luxuriant garden opens before us showing a small lake with bridges on its banks and a castle in the background. Cherry blossoms and rose bushes border the pond. The landscape has been resolved with ease and descriptive precision, in richly contrasting tones with a predominance of green, blue and earthy tones, with pink details. The subject is in keeping with nineteenth-century aristocratic taste. The city of Aubusson agglutinated numerous tapestry workshops, which were created by Flemish weavers who settled in the area at the end of the 16th century. They had a rudimentary operation, compared to the Royal Gobelins Manufacture: they had no painters, dyers, nor a commercial structure, so their tapestries were sold in inns, to a lower class private clientele, mainly provincial aristocrats. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Aubusson workshops specialized in vegetable tapestries (with eminently floral decoration), but the situation changed radically when, in the mid-seventeenth century, this center was reorganized by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, with the aim of converting these workshops into royal manufactories. He then subjected the Aubusson and Felletin workshops to a guild regulation and, in exchange, promised to provide them with a painter and a dyer. This promise, however, would not become effective until the 18th century, a turning point for the workshops of La Marche, which would see a considerable increase in the quality of their tapestries by being able to count on a painter dedicated to making cartons and a dyer who would produce dyes of a higher quality than those used until then.