This tapestry is part of four hangings that have been reconstructed from what originally was a set of three tapestries depicting the Nine (or Ten?) Worthies. The heroes depicted included King Arthur, Joshua, David, Hector of Troy, and Julius Caesar, along with various attendants. One of the reconstructed hangings (32.130.2b, 47.101.1, 47.152) shows two of the three Hebrew Worthies in their settings and with nearly all of their attendant figures. Another represents King Arthur (32.130.2a, 47.101.4), one of the three or possibly four figures that appeared in the original tapestry devoted to the Christian Worthies, together with some attendant figures. The third and fourth pieces represent respectively Hector of Troy (47.101.2) and Julius Caesar (47.101.3), with attendant, taken from a third tapestry that depicted the three Pagan Worthies. Other fragments (47.101.5 and 49.123), showing architectural elements, bits of landscape, and the incomplete figures of three cardinals and a bishop, all apparently unconnected to those parts of the three original hangings that survive, are preserved separately in the Metropolitan Museum.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Julius Caesar and Attendants (from the Nine Heroes Tapestries)
Date:ca. 1400–1410
Culture:South Netherlandish
Medium:Wool warp, wool wefts
Dimensions:Overall: 165 1/2 x 91 in. (420.4 x 231.1 cm)
Classification:Textiles-Tapestries
Credit Line:Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1947
Accession Number:47.101.3
Marking: Arms of Caesar: gold, a double-headed eagle displayed sable.
[ Joel Joseph Duveen, London] ; Baron Arthur Schickler 1828–1919, château Martinvast, Normandy (from about 1872) ; Count and Countess Hubert de Pourtalès, château Martinvast, Normandy (sold 1936, through Guiraud) ; [ Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York (1936–1947) ]
Rorimer, James J. Mediaeval Tapestries: A Picture Book. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1947. p. 2.
Rorimer, James J. "The Museum's Collection of Mediaeval Tapestries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 6, no. 3 (November 1947). pp. 92–93, 98.
Adam-Even, Paul. "La tapisserie aux Preux (Metropolitan Museum, New York)." Revue Française d'Héraldique et de Sigillographie 5, no. 12 (1949). pp. 74–76.
Comstock, Helen. "The Connoisseur in America: The Rediscovery of the Duke of Berry's 'Heroes'." The Connoisseur 124 (1949). pp. 114–116.
Rorimer, James J., and Margaret B. Freeman. "The Nine Heroes Tapestries at The Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 7, no. 9 (May 1949). pp. 243–260, fig. pp. 247, 258.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art in Fort Tryon Park, New York. 11th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1951. pp. 47–55, fig. 26.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1952. no. 55, p. 222.
Rorimer, James J. The Nine Heroes Tapestries at The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1953.
Freeman, Margaret. "A Book of Hours Made for the Duke of Berry." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 15, no. 4 (December 1956). pp. 101–102.
Weigert, Roger-Armand. La tapisserie française. Paris: Pierre Larousse, 1956. pp. 37–38.
Wyss, R.L. "Die neun Helden: Eine ikonographische Studie." Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte (1957). pp. 78–79, 86.
Heinz, Dora. "Gewirkte Monumentalmalerei - Zur Tapisseriekunst in Frankreich und Burgund um 1400." Alte und Moderne Kunst 56/57 (March/April 1962). p. 26.
Heinz, Dora. Europäische Wandteppiche: Ein Handbuch für Sammler und Liebhaber. Volume 1: Von den Anfängen der Bildwerkerei bis zum Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts. Bibliothek für Kunst- und Antiquitätenfreunde, Vol. 37. Brunswick: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1963. pp. 53–54.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. pp. 76–83, fig. 35.
Weigert, Roger-Armand. La tapisserie et le tapis en France. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1964. pp. 23–24.
Verlet, Pierre. "Gothic Tapestry." In Great Tapestries: The Web of History from the 12th to the 20th Century, edited by Joseph Jobé. Lausanne: Edita, 1965. pp. 10, 20–21, 51.
Stoddard, Whitney S. Monastery and Cathedral in France: Medieval Architecture, Sculpture, Stained Glass, Manuscripts, the Art of the Church Treasuries. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1966. pp. 350, 355–56.
Troescher, Georg. Burgundische Malerei. Maler und Malwerke um 1400 in Burgund, dem Berry mit der Auvergne und in Savoyen mit ihren Quellen und Ausstrahlungen. Vol. 1. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1966. pp. 241–242, 289, illus vol II, figs. 412–415.
Viale Ferrero, Mercedes. "Tapestry and Carpets: I. Tapestry." In Encyclopedia of World Art. Vol. 13. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967. cols. 913–14.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. Volume 1, Text. London: Phaidon Press, 1967. pp. 58, 365 n. 103.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. Volume 2, Plates. London: Phaidon Press, 1967. fig. 445.
Jarry, Madeleine. World Tapestry: From Its Origins to the Present. New York: Putnam, 1969. pp. 34, 37.
Ysselsteyn, G.T. van. Tapestry: The Most Expensive Industry of the XVth and XVIth Centuries; A Renewed Research into Technic, Origin and Iconography. The Hague: Cornelis Gysbert van Goor, 1969. pp. 38–40, 100.
Coffinet, Julien. Arachné ou L'art de la tapisserie. Paris: Bibliothèque des arts, 1971. p. 176.
Stucky-Schürer, Monika. Die Passionsteppiche von San Marco in Venedig. Bern: Stämpfli Verlag, 1972. pp. 63–64.
Vaivre, Jean-Bernard de. "Les trois couronnes des hérauts." Archivum Heraldicum 86 (1972). no. 25, p. 34.
Coffinet, Julien. Métamorphoses de la tapisserie. Paris: Bibliothèque des arts, 1977. p. 16.
Legner, Anton, ed. Die Parler und der schöne Stil, 1350-1400: Europäische Kunst unter den Luxemburgern. Vol. 3. Cologne: Museen der Stadt Köln, 1978. pp. 120–123.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. pp. 58–63.
Vaivre, Jean-Bernard de. "L'Héraldique et l'histoire de l'art du Moyen Age." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 93 (1979). pp. 102, 104.
Heslop, T. A. "The Episcopal Seals of Richard of Bury." In Medieval Art and Architecture at Durham Cathedral. British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions 1977. London: British Archaeological Association, 1980. p. 157.
Grand, Paule-Marie. La Tapisserie. Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1981. p. 42.
Baron, Françoise, ed. Les fastes du Gothique: Le siècle de Charles V. Paris: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 1981. p. 410.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983. no. 26, p. 370.
Vaivre, Jean-Bernard de. "Notes d'héraldique et d'emblématique à propos de la tapisserie de l'Apocalypse d'Angers." In Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Vol. 127. 1983. no. 54, pp. 102–103, 113.
Herman, Kerry B. "Exemplum Virtutis: The Noble Heroes and Heroines of the Middle Ages." In Survival of the Gods: Classical Mythology in Medieval Art. Providence, R.I.: Brown University, 1987. p. 25.
Husband, Timothy B., and Charles T. Little. Europe in the Middle Ages. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. no. 119, pp. 127–128.
Erlane-Brandenburg, Alain, and Francis Salet. La tenture de l'Apocalypse d'Angers. Nantes, 1987. p. 16.
Sterling, Charles. La Peinture Médiévale à Paris, 1300-1500. Vol. 1. Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, 1987. p. 202.
Frodl-Kraft, Eva. "The Stained Glass from Ebreichsdorf and the Austrian 'Ducal Workshop'." In The Cloisters: Studies in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary, edited by Elizabeth C. Parker. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. p. 402, fig. 21, ill. p. 405.
Cavallo, Adolfo S. Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 2, pp. 14, 94–124, fig. 88–92.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. no. 26, p. 404.
Campbell, Thomas P., ed. Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. pp. 48–49.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 81, pp. 116–17, 197.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 122–123.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. p. 212.
Gil, Marc. "Jean Pucelle and the Parisian Seal-Engravers and Goldsmiths." In Jean Pucelle: Innovation and Collaboration in Manuscript Painting, edited by Kyunghee Pyun, and Anna D. Russakoff. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2013. p. 39.
Stucky-Schürer, Monica. Eine immerwährende Krönung: Charles VII (1403-1461) und die Throntapisserie im Louvre. Basel: Schwabe & Co., 2014. p. 87.
Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. p. 501.
Bolton, Andrew, ed. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Vol. 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. p. 294.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world, encompassing the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance.
