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Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor
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The Battle of the Granicus (detail)
From a five-piece set of the Story of Alexander
Design by Charles Le Brun, 1664–65
Cartoon by Louis Licherie, 1665
Woven in the workshop of Jean Jans the Younger at the Manufacture Royale des Gobelins, Paris, 1680–87
Wool, silk, and gilt-metal-wrapped silk thread; 15 ft. 11 in. x 27 ft. 85/8 in. (485 x 845 cm)
Inscribed I.L.F. 1672 in lower border at right
Kunstkammer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (T V 2)
See an image of the entire panel.
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Le Brun secured his position as First Painter to the King in 1661 with a painting of the Alexander and the Family of Darius, inviting comparison between Louis XIV and Alexander (and, implicitly, between himself and Apelles, Alexander's famous artist). The success of that painting led Louis to commission four more monumental Alexander panels from Le Brun between 1661 and 1668. At the same time that these were being executed, Louis ordered that they be reproduced in the richer medium of tapestry. Two sets of cartoons were prepared, one for use on the high-warp looms, the second for use on low-warp looms. In these, the larger compositions were broken down into smaller sections, so that the series entailed twelve scenes in all. Between 1664 and 1688, four sets of this design were produced on the high-warp looms and four on the low-warp looms. The set from which this particular weaving derives was presented in 1699 as a gift to Leopold Joseph, duke of Lorraine.
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