Description
A FRENCH MYTHOLOGICAL LITERARY TAPESTRY FRAGMENT, PARIS WORKSHOP, FROM THE STORY OF RINALDO AND ARMIDA, AFTER SIMON VOUET, FROM TORQUATO TASSO MID 17TH CENTURY woven depicting `Rinaldo leaving Armida on the Enchanted Isle', showing Rinaldo and his fellow Crusaders, Carlo and Ubaldo, having rescued Rinaldo from Armida's spell and seen sailing away from the enchanted isle, with the distressed sorceress, Armida, fainting at their departure and seen in the background left on the shore of her enchanted isle (Gerusalemme Liberata, Torquato Tasso, Canto XVI, verse lxi); lacking border approximately 251cm. high, 282cm. wide; 8ft. 3in., 9ft. 3in.
Notes
Away he went, the west wind blew from land `mongst the rich tresses of their pilots head, And with that golden sail the waves she cleft: to land he look'd till land unseen he left
(Gerusalemme Liberata, Torquato Tasso, Canto XVI, verse lxi)
The Story of Rinaldo and Armida is found within the poem, Gerusalemme Liberata - Jerusalem Delivered, which immortalises the Christian Crusades of 1099 was first published in 1581 by the sixteenth century Italian poet, Torquato Tasso (1544-1595). Armida, daughter of the King of Damascus, was a sorceress and niece of a famous magician, determined to conquer the invading Crusaders, which included Rinaldo, and the the story takes us through hate, love, vengeance and back to love, a varying sequence of themes which were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Story of Armida and Rinaldo ends with Armida about to commit suicide due to her defeat after the battles against Rinaldo and the Crusaders, and rescued at the last minute by Rinaldo himself, resulting in her conversion to Christianity. The tapestries were based upon a series of tapestries commissioned in 1630 by Simon Vouet (1590-1649), and woven between 1634-1635, the paintings now recorded in the Collection of M. Guyot de Villeneuve, Paris, and the tapestry designs repeat with some variations ten of the original twelve compositions found in the paintings. With distinctive frame pattern border with corner caryatids and fighting satyrs, the set bears the marks, P, R and a fleur de lys. The Louis XIII set was obtained by Cardinal Francesco Barberini and has become known as the Barberini set. The most complete recorded set and that of the finest quality is this set of ten tapestries, now in the Flint Institute of Arts, having been a gift from Mrs Viola E. Bray in 1961. There were several sets and single tapestries woven depicting this subject matter.
Although the series of paintings of Rinaldo and Armida by Simon Vouet has been traditionally described as having been executed for the Hôtel de Bullion, (see Louis Demonts for this original deduction repeated by subsequent authorities including Fenaille) M. Thuillier in his catalogue has shown that it was in fact painted for Henry de Fourcy, Surintendant des Batiments, for the gallery of the château de Chessy. Thuillier cites Félibien in placing them before 1632 'pour le Président de Fourcy plusieurs ouvrages en sa maison de Chessy' and also quotes Piganiol de La Force in 1718 in his description of the château 'On y trouve de beaux Appartements bien pratiques et une assez belle galerie, dans laquelle Vouet a peint les Amours de Renaud et Armide' Some of the original decoration of the gallery there, now in a Paris private collection, is illustrated pp.117-118 (elements du decor de la galerie du château de Chessy).
For some other examples of weavings from this series which have come to auction see Sotheby's, London, 1st November 2005, lot 137, for the same subject in the series as the offered panel, and Sotheby's, London, 29 May 1998, lot 15, for a weaving of Rinaldo in the arms of Armida, in distinctive four-sided blue border with golden arabesques and figures, with the weaver's mark of Alexandre de Comans and Josse van den Dicke, and a provenance of Baron et Baronne de Lareinty- Tholozen, Château de Guermantes, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19th December 1917, one of a set of five pieces from the Story of Rinaldo and Armida. Later offered at Sotheby's, London, 24th May 2003, as lot 49. Christie's, Monaco, 17th June 2001, lot 702, had another weaving of this subject matter, also with Carlo and Ubaldo looking on, which had a border with swags of flowers and similar sculptural details. See also Sotheby's, Zurich, 10th December 1996, lot 292, for a weaving of Armida ready to slay the sleeping Rinaldo, lacking a border, and Sotheby's, 30th November 1990, lot 18 for a weaving of the same panel, with the weaver's mark of Hippolyte de Comans, and a companion tapestry of Armida driving her chariot from the enchanted island and carrying the weaver's mark of Charles de Comans was sold From the Collection of the 5th Earl of Rosebery, Mentmore, Sothebys, 20th May 1977, lot 801.
Literature:
The Tapestries, Viola E. Bray Renaissance Gallery, Flint Institute of Arts, former Barberini set woven by Raphael de la Planche, illustrates (Fig VI) the comparable example of the offered tapestry lot, from that set of ten tapestries (missing two from the original series of twelve designed);
William R. Crelly, The Painting of Simon Vouet, 1962, p.266, lists the tapestries of this series of which this offered lot is the sixth (No.267F);
Louis Demonts, Les amours de Renaud et Armide, decoration peinte par Simon Vouet, pour Claude de Bullion, Bulletin de la Societe de l'art français, Paris, 1913, pp.58- 78
Maurice Fenaille, Etat général des tapisseries de la manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1924, Vol.I, pp.319-328 'Renaud et Armide. D'après Vouet' . Fenaille describes in detail the series of twelve tapestries of the Story of Rinaldo and Armida;
Jacques Thuillier, Vouet, Exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1990-1991, pp.512-517, describes and illustrates four other scenes from the series
