229 - Large tapestry known as “The Skittles Players,” based on a cartoon by David TENIERS, depicting a landscape with skittles players, figures smoking, architecture, and a cart.

Large tapestry known as “The Skittles Players,” based on a cartoon by David TENIERS, depicting a landscape with skittles players, figures smoking, architecture, and a cart. Brussels, first half of the 18th century. Height: 253, Width: 378 cm THE TENIERS TAPESTRIES FROM THE MELTER AND WERNIERS MANUFACTORY IN LILLE This tapestry is part of the famous group of works created before 1738 at Guillaume Werniers’s workshop based on designs by Teniers. While the landscape is likely the product of the cartoonist’s imagination, its figures are drawn from motifs taken from various paintings by Teniers, though rendered in a more or less simplified style. The figure of the peasant refers to the positive activity of the farmer who is mindful of his responsibilities, while the game of skittles and the smoker could symbolize the depraved pleasures and idleness that risk diverting man from his duty.