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Panel with grotesques, from a set of bed hangings

related to the prints of Cornelis Floris II Netherlandish
ca. 1550–60
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 503
The late fifteenth-century rediscovery of the Roman emperor Nero’s palace, the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, spurred a revival of the fanciful decorations of part-human creatures amid leafy patterns—called “grotesques”—that were found on its walls and evoked the palace’s grottolike, subterranean spaces. Italian and Flemish designers of the period developed the style in tapestries, whose bright dyes and space-enveloping properties were suited to grotesques’ sinuous forms and skewed, otherworldly version of reality. Pope Leo X and the Genoese statesman Andrea Doria both commissioned grotesque tapestries from celebrated Brussels-based weavers; this panel, with its bold palette and fanciful, Antique-inspired motifs, was probably originally made for Philip II, King of Spain, to embellish a four-poster bed.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Panel with grotesques, from a set of bed hangings
  • Artist: related to the prints of Cornelis Floris II (Netherlandish, Antwerp before 1514–1575 Antwerp)
  • Date: ca. 1550–60
  • Culture: Netherlandish, Brussels
  • Medium: Silk, wool, silver and silver-gilt thread (20-22 warps per inch, 8-9 per cm.)
  • Dimensions: 65 1/2 in. × 80 in. (166.4 × 203.2 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Gift of George Blumenthal, 1941
  • Object Number: 41.100.385
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

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Panel with grotesques, from a set of bed hangings, Cornelis Floris II Netherlandish, Silk, wool, silver and silver-gilt thread (20-22 warps per inch, 8-9 per cm.), Netherlandish, Brussels
Panel with grotesques, from a set of bed hangings
Cornelis Floris II
ca. 1550–60
Auricular Cartouche with Figures within a Strapwork Frame from Veederley Veranderinghe van grotissen ende Compertimenten. Libro Primo, Cornelis Floris II Netherlandish, Etching
Auricular Cartouche with Figures within a Strapwork Frame from Veederley Veranderinghe van grotissen ende Compertimenten. Libro Primo
Multiple artists/makers
1556
[Four plates of ornamental panels], Cornelis Floris II Netherlandish, Etching
[Four plates of ornamental panels]
Multiple artists/makers
n.d.
Surface Decoration, Grotesque with Strapwork, Aedicula at Center, on Either Side Recessed Balconies, in Frame at Lower Center Moses and the Brazen Serpent from Veelderleij Veranderinghe van grotissen ende Compertimenten...Libro Primo, Cornelis Floris II Netherlandish, Etching
Surface Decoration, Grotesque with Strapwork, Aedicula at Center, on Either Side Recessed Balconies, in Frame at Lower Center Moses and the Brazen Serpent from Veelderleij Veranderinghe van grotissen ende Compertimenten...Libro Primo
Multiple artists/makers
1556
Surface Decoration, Grotesque with Strapwork, Burial Scene in the Tempietto, in the Bas Relief Esther before Ahasuerus from Veelderleij Veranderinghe van grotissen ende Compertimenten...Libro Primo, Cornelis Floris II Netherlandish, Etching
Surface Decoration, Grotesque with Strapwork, Burial Scene in the Tempietto, in the Bas Relief Esther before Ahasuerus from Veelderleij Veranderinghe van grotissen ende Compertimenten...Libro Primo
Multiple artists/makers
1556

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