LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

The style of decoration of this cushion front is typical of a group of tapestry panels generally attributed to southern Denmark or northern Germany. A number of small workshops were established in the late 1570s to 1580s in this area by Flemish immigrants who fled their native lands because of religious persecutions during the campaigns of the Duke of Alba in Flanders.

Small tapestries of this type were usually conceived as cushion covers, and it appears that they were frequently made as sets dealing with related subjects. A tapestry panel of very similar design depicting Samson and the Lion, was sold anonymously, Christie's King Street, 1 October 1998, lot 248.