The Battle with the Sagittary and the Conference at Achilles' Tent (from Scenes from the Story of the Trojan War)

Artist: Probably produced through Jean or Pasquier Grenier of Tournai

Date: ca. 1470–90

Geography: Made in Tournai, South Netherlands

Culture: South Netherlandish

Medium: Wool warp, wool wefts with a few silk wefts

Dimensions: Overall: 172 × 156 in. (436.9 × 396.2 cm)

Classification: Textiles-Tapestries

Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1952

Accession Number: 52.69

Description

This tapestry fragment is one of two or more tapestries that were woven after a cartoon illustrating a composition in the Trojan War series. Among the composition's episodes were the two illustrated here: the fifth battle, in which the centaur, or Sagittary, fought on the side of the Trojans; and the conference held in Achilles' tent to arrange single combat between Hector and Menelaus. Another fragment (acc. no. 39.74) depicts Hector arming for war as Andromache and Priam urge him not to go. The legend of the Trojan War had special appeal for the dukes of Burgundy, who claimed Priam, the last king of Troy and the father of Hector and Paris, as an ancestor. In September 1472, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, received as a gift a set of Trojan War tapestries that were produced by Pasquier Grenier of Tournai. The Museum's pieces, while probably not part of the original set made for Charles, were likely woven after the same series of cartoons. They are formidable examples of the types of ambitious tapestries produced for the Burgundian court in the Netherlands.

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