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Lot Essay
This tapestry panel is closely related to a set of nine overdoor panels depicting the Virtues and eleven larger panels, from two sets, depicting the same subject in the Quirinale Palace, Rome (N. Forti Grazzini, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale, Gli Arazzi, Rome, 1994, vol. I, figs. 15 - 28, pp. 55 - 77). The set of nine overdoor panels as well as one set of five large panels depicting the Virtues from the above group were designed by Alessandro Rosi (1627 - 1697) between 1690 and 1697. The second group of Virtues tapestries which is less closely related to the offered lot and consists of six panels, was designed by Francesco Nani (d. 1735) and Jacopo Bonelli with inspiration from works by Andrea del Sarto (1486 - 1530).
All of the above panels were originally commissioned by and supplied to the Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici for his Florentine collections. These allegorical tapestries were the last to be supplied with such strict baroque ideas of the 17th Century. With the beginning of the new Century and the appointment of Giovanni Battista Termini (d. 1717) as head of the workshop in 1703, the character markedly shifted towards more decorative schemes of French inspiration. The recorded dates of the completion of the Virtues are between 1692 and 1703, which is also the timeframe most likely for the completion of this example.
All of the above panels were originally commissioned by and supplied to the Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici for his Florentine collections. These allegorical tapestries were the last to be supplied with such strict baroque ideas of the 17th Century. With the beginning of the new Century and the appointment of Giovanni Battista Termini (d. 1717) as head of the workshop in 1703, the character markedly shifted towards more decorative schemes of French inspiration. The recorded dates of the completion of the Virtues are between 1692 and 1703, which is also the timeframe most likely for the completion of this example.