News of the Stag from the series known as the Hunters' Chase
Manufactory Mortlake Tapestry Manufactory British
Related to designs probably by Bernard van Orley Netherlandish
Not on view
This tapestry is one from a nine-piece series known as the Hunters’ Chase. Curiously-enough, given its secular subject-matter, the original edition was commissioned by the Dutch Church in London, in 1645. Francis Clein designed four of the pieces in the series from scratch; the other five, including News of the Stag, were based on existing tapestry designs by the great 16th-century artist Bernard van Orley for his influential, Brussels-woven Hunts of Maximilian. Hunters’ Chase proved incredibly popular for Mortlake, resulting in much-needed commissions for the floundering manufactory: at least 8 different re-editions were woven during the following decades, including that of which this News of the Stag was part.
For more info see Edith Standen, European post-medieval tapestries and related hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985 (vol.2, cat.125) and Wendy Hefford in Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor, MMA exh.cat. 2007 (p.182).
#402. The Mortlake Tapestry Works
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