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Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor
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Meeting at the Temple of Venus (detail)
From a six-piece set of Hero and Leander
Design by Francis Clein, ca. 1625–28
Woven in the Mortlake workshop, Surrey, ca. 1630–36
Wool, silk, and gilt-metal-wrapped thread; 14 ft. 6 3/4 in. x 13 ft. 9 1/4 in. (444 x 420 cm)
Marks of Sir Francis Crane in lower-right vertical edge, of Philip de Maeght and England at bottom, near the right corner
The Royal Collections, Drottningholm Palace (H.G.K. 51)
See an image of the entire panel.
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This scene derives from a series illustrating the tragic story of Hero and Leander, lovers separated by the waters of the Hellespont. Their story, based on the fifth-century A.D. narrative of Musaeus, was popularized in England through the poem by Christopher Marlowe (d. 1593), completed by George Chapman and published in 1598, and by George Chapman's translation, The Loves of Hero and Leander, the Divine Poem of Musaeus, of 1616. The design was the first large-figure narrative series conceived by Francis Clein for the Mortlake manufactory after his appointment as official tapestry designer in 1626. The nervous figures, decorative costumes, and subtle atmospheric effects of the Hero and Leander series typifies the best of his work, which blended influences of Honthort, Rubens, and Inigo Jones. Charles evidently held the series in high esteem and he purchased at least three sets of this design between 1630 and 1636. The first two, acquired in 1630–31, were presented as gifts to the French and Spanish ambassadors. This, the third weaving, was paid for in 1636, but at this date it may already have been presented as a gift to the Swedish legate to London, Count Johan Oxonstierna. In 1654 Oxonstierna presented the set to King Charles X of Sweden on the occasion of his marriage.
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