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Old Age Drives the Stag out of a Lake and the Hounds Heat, Grief, Cold, Anxiety, Age, and Heaviness Pursue Him: (from The Hunt of the Frail Stag)

ca. 1500–1525
Not on view
This tapestry illustrates a poem about human frailty, in which the stag represents Man. Here, Age and her hounds Heat, Grief, Heaviness, Cold, and Anxiety, drive the stag from a lake. A French inscription may be translated:

Then Old Age mounts an all-out assault
That drives him from the lake
And unleashes upon him Pain and Doubt,
Cold and Heat, and thus brings on
Care and Trouble to seize him.
And Age with wrinkled flesh
And Heaviness make him flee
Toward Sickness, the dreaded one.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Old Age Drives the Stag out of a Lake and the Hounds Heat, Grief, Cold, Anxiety, Age, and Heaviness Pursue Him: (from The Hunt of the Frail Stag)
  • Date: ca. 1500–1525
  • Culture: South Netherlandish
  • Medium: Wool warp, wool and silk wefts, embroidered with wool
  • Dimensions: Overall: 102 x 137in. (259.1 x 348cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness, 1950
  • Object Number: 50.145.5
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

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