Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Letter F with the Nine Heroes
Not on view
The nine historical figures depicted here were widely recognized as role models for European leaders. This object was made for an unidentified ruler whose name began with F—perhaps Francis I of France?
Three of the rulers set forth as exemplars are from Hebrew Scripture: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabee. Three come from the classical world—Hector of Troy, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar—and three are medieval kings: Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon, the Latin King of Jerusalem. Their images here depend on woodcuts made by Lucas van Leyden around 1515. In adapting them, the carver has sometimes changed the direction in which the men ride, and he has exchanged Alexander's horse for an elephant. The Nine Heroes—enthroned, not out riding—appear on a suite of tapestries in The Cloisters collection.
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