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Lot Essay
Claude Audran le Jeune (d. 1734) designed this series in 1708 and 1709 while he was executing the decoration of the apartments of the Dauphin, later King Louis XV, at the château de Meudon. An entry in the Comptes des Bâtiments indicates the creation of the series:
Année 1709. Maison Royales. - Peinture: à Claude Audran, autre peintre, pour un tableau représentant un berceau où des singes sont à table; posé à Marly en 1709, 300 livres
A luy pour peintures faites aux Gobelins en 1708 et 1709, pour le nouveau batiment de Monseigneur à Meudon
495 livres
It was during the same period that the young Antoine Watteau (d. 1721), then just 23 or 24 years old, worked under Audran. It is probable that he collaborated on this project, while it was Alexandre-François Desportes (d. 1743) who supplied the animal figures. Rather unusually, the original designs do not appear to have remained at Gobelins thereafter as they are not recorded in the detailed inventory taken at the workshop in 1736.
The editio princeps woven for the Dauphin, which contained gold and silver-thread, was divided into three panels, one with six joined panels and the other two with three joined panels each. That suite is today in the Mobilier National in Paris, with the exception of one of the smaller panels depicting October, November and December that was already noted missing in 1830.
Jean Audran, brother of the designer, subsequently engraved the cartoons, which no longer exist, in 1726, which was subsequently copied by Gotfried Rogg (d. 1742) of Augsburg in his 'Neues Unterschidildiches Bilder laub und Grotetchgenwerk'. Interestingly the set executed for the Dauphin is extended at the top and includes a further ornament while the lot offered corresponds in design to the engravings. The Dauphin Mois Grotesques set is the only listed suite of this subject recorded in the official records at the Royal Gobelins manufacture but further weavings are known to exist. M. Fenaille in his État Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1904, vol. III, pp. 73 - 80, mentions two further sets of the same height as the Dauphin version and two that are identical to the engravings by Jean Audran. Both of the shorter sets are 285 cm high and have a narrow foliate border. One, then in the collection of M. Bischoffsheim, contains some gold and silver-thread, while the second set, which was sold from the collection of Baron de Gunzbourg, does not appear to be woven with metal-thread. It is thus possible that the Gunzbourg suite is this lot. A further Mois Grotesques set that is almost certainly of the same size as this lot is in the Yellow Room at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome (H. Göbel, Die Wandteppiche und ihre Manufakturen in Frankreich Italien Spanien und Protugal, Leipzig, 1928, vol. II, fig. 132).
The edito princeps of these magnificent tapestries represents the Grand Dauphin, the future Louis XV, adopting his 'Apollo' role as patron and Lord of the Arts of France in the furnishing of his apartments at the château de Meudon. The Sun deity Apollo, as leader of Mt. Parnassus' Muses of Artistic Inspiration, presides over these Olympic deities symbolising the Months of the Year. Richly filigreed and coloured after the antique fashion associated with the Parnussas grotto, they are named as the 'Douze Mois Grotesques par Bandes'. Their richly flowered and filated pilasters or 'paned' tablets, display the deities within triumphal baldequins that are labelled by Zodiac medallions and accompanied by emblematic badges and symbols. They are designed in a graceful Roman form that evolved from the Louis Quatorze 'antique' style associated with the 'Oeuvres' of Jean Bérain (d.1711) as 'Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi'. This new fashion was introduced by the court artist Claude Audran (d.1734), whose decorative ornament was already described in 1693 as surpassing that of Bérain as being, 'plus exquis et plus svelte'.
Audran introduced his popular 'singeries' in 1709 at the château de Marly and composed them at the same time as these exuberant tapestries, which demonstrate his role as Berain's true successor. It was in 1699, while serving as a designer at the Gobelins, that Audran received the commission from Mansart for the 'Portières des Dieux' series, which were to incorporate figures by Louis de Boulogne. Then in 1704 he recieved a court appointment at the Palais de Luxembourg and was able to establish tapestry works there.
Année 1709. Maison Royales. - Peinture: à Claude Audran, autre peintre, pour un tableau représentant un berceau où des singes sont à table; posé à Marly en 1709, 300 livres
A luy pour peintures faites aux Gobelins en 1708 et 1709, pour le nouveau batiment de Monseigneur à Meudon
495 livres
It was during the same period that the young Antoine Watteau (d. 1721), then just 23 or 24 years old, worked under Audran. It is probable that he collaborated on this project, while it was Alexandre-François Desportes (d. 1743) who supplied the animal figures. Rather unusually, the original designs do not appear to have remained at Gobelins thereafter as they are not recorded in the detailed inventory taken at the workshop in 1736.
The editio princeps woven for the Dauphin, which contained gold and silver-thread, was divided into three panels, one with six joined panels and the other two with three joined panels each. That suite is today in the Mobilier National in Paris, with the exception of one of the smaller panels depicting October, November and December that was already noted missing in 1830.
Jean Audran, brother of the designer, subsequently engraved the cartoons, which no longer exist, in 1726, which was subsequently copied by Gotfried Rogg (d. 1742) of Augsburg in his 'Neues Unterschidildiches Bilder laub und Grotetchgenwerk'. Interestingly the set executed for the Dauphin is extended at the top and includes a further ornament while the lot offered corresponds in design to the engravings. The Dauphin Mois Grotesques set is the only listed suite of this subject recorded in the official records at the Royal Gobelins manufacture but further weavings are known to exist. M. Fenaille in his État Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1904, vol. III, pp. 73 - 80, mentions two further sets of the same height as the Dauphin version and two that are identical to the engravings by Jean Audran. Both of the shorter sets are 285 cm high and have a narrow foliate border. One, then in the collection of M. Bischoffsheim, contains some gold and silver-thread, while the second set, which was sold from the collection of Baron de Gunzbourg, does not appear to be woven with metal-thread. It is thus possible that the Gunzbourg suite is this lot. A further Mois Grotesques set that is almost certainly of the same size as this lot is in the Yellow Room at Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome (H. Göbel, Die Wandteppiche und ihre Manufakturen in Frankreich Italien Spanien und Protugal, Leipzig, 1928, vol. II, fig. 132).
The edito princeps of these magnificent tapestries represents the Grand Dauphin, the future Louis XV, adopting his 'Apollo' role as patron and Lord of the Arts of France in the furnishing of his apartments at the château de Meudon. The Sun deity Apollo, as leader of Mt. Parnassus' Muses of Artistic Inspiration, presides over these Olympic deities symbolising the Months of the Year. Richly filigreed and coloured after the antique fashion associated with the Parnussas grotto, they are named as the 'Douze Mois Grotesques par Bandes'. Their richly flowered and filated pilasters or 'paned' tablets, display the deities within triumphal baldequins that are labelled by Zodiac medallions and accompanied by emblematic badges and symbols. They are designed in a graceful Roman form that evolved from the Louis Quatorze 'antique' style associated with the 'Oeuvres' of Jean Bérain (d.1711) as 'Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi'. This new fashion was introduced by the court artist Claude Audran (d.1734), whose decorative ornament was already described in 1693 as surpassing that of Bérain as being, 'plus exquis et plus svelte'.
Audran introduced his popular 'singeries' in 1709 at the château de Marly and composed them at the same time as these exuberant tapestries, which demonstrate his role as Berain's true successor. It was in 1699, while serving as a designer at the Gobelins, that Audran received the commission from Mansart for the 'Portières des Dieux' series, which were to incorporate figures by Louis de Boulogne. Then in 1704 he recieved a court appointment at the Palais de Luxembourg and was able to establish tapestry works there.