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.
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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) ]
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