AN EARLY LOUIS XV GOBELINS ENTRE-FENETRE, FROM THE SERIES 'LES TRIOMPHES DES DIEUX'

CIRCA 1723-25, BASED ON DESIGNS BY NOEL COYPEL

Details

Representing Summer, woven with the figure of Ceres under a colonnade flanked by her companions within an acanthus and guilloche border, reduced in size
Approximately 11 ft. 3 in. (3 m. 43 cm.) x 8 ft. 8 in. (2 m. 64 cm.)


Lot Essay

This tapestry forms part of the celebrated 'Triomphes des Dieux' series, first woven at Gobelins circa 1686-1701 under the direction of the Marquis de Louvois and now at the château de Fontainebleau. Otherwise known as the 'Rabesques' or 'Arabesques du Raphaël', this series was inspired by a Renaissance weaving executed in Brussels after designs by Giulio Romano, which were in turn loosely related to Raphael's Vatican Loggia. The 'Triomphes des Dieux' comprised eight panels and depicted the triumphs of Bacchus, Venus, Apollo, Minerva, Mars, Hercules, Religion and Philosophy. With the exception of the Triomphe de la Philosophie, they were woven to the designs of the painter Noël Coypel (1628-1707) after the Brussels prototypes in the mobilier de la couronne, acquired by Louis XIV in 1673, but with various modifications and differing borders, for which Coypel received the sum of 24,000 livres. Several of the cartoons remain in the Musée du Louvre. Comprising, in total, eight panels, five entre-fenêtres and two allongés, this series was woven a further six times between 1690 and 1714. Employing gold thread in five of these, they were variously woven in the ateliers of Jans, Le Febvre, De La Fraye, De La Croix père, Le Blond and Sonet (M. Fenaille, Tapisseries des Gobelins, 1662-1699, Paris, 1904, Vol. II, pp. 220-245).
Between 1723 and 1725 a set of five entre-fenêtres were woven to supplement the seventh tenture of the series Les Triomphes des Dieux. This series had been in production since 1701 and were priced between 345 and 355 livres each when the first set was completed at the Gobelins based on the designs of Noël Coypel. The five entre-fenêtres were woven to represent Ceres (or Summer), Spring, Mars, Bacchus and Architecture (or Winter). Extensions of varying sizes and shapes were also woven to accompany the original five entre-fenêtres. The entre-fenêtre depicting Ceres, or Summer, borrows heavily from various earlier tapestries of the 'Triomphes des Dieux': the lower section is taken from the Triumph of Hercules with the putti shown being identical to those found in the Triumph of Philosophy; in the middle section Ceres is a copy of the figure of Rhetoric from the Triumph of Philosophy, while flanking her, the maiden figures are those of Dialectic and Music from the same piece. With the exception of Summer and Winter, these entre-fenêtres were recorded in the Mobilier de la Couronne on 18 September 1745. By 1900 these three tapestries were no longer in the Mobilier National. The two depicting Winter and Summer, which remained at Gobelins in 1725 were subsequently recorded in 1791 and 1808. The entre-fenêtre depicting Summer and measuring 490 cm by 300 cm was transferred to Fontainebleau while Winter, which is also mentioned in the 1864 records of the Musée des Gobelins, was eventually destroyed in a fire 1871, see M. Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, 1923, vol. II, p. 243.