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Lot Essay
This tapestry recounts two episodes from the classical Greek story of the Jason and the Golden Fleece. The right background illustrates King Pelias, Jason's uncle, asking him to take the Golden Fleece from Aeëtes, King of Colchis. It is with the help of Medea, Aeëtes' daughter who is in love with Jason, that he succeeds in beating the dragon who guards the Golden Fleece. The foreground shows Jason giving the Golden Fleece to Medea. The left background illustrates the importance of the decorative aspects of such tapestries by depicting a common and unrelated stag hunt.
A tapestry of identical design, but reduced in size is at the convent of Kremsmünster, Germany and discussed by I. de Meûter and M. Vanwelden in their Tapisseries d'Audenarde du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, Tielt, 1999, pp. 177 - 179. They indicate that an identical weaver's mark is to be found on the Kremsmünster tapestry and believed to be that of Jan Pontzeel, of whom nothing further is known.
It is interesting to note that a tapestry depicting the story of Dido and Aeneas in the Spanish Royal Collection utilizes a nearly identical central figure group, except in reverse (P. Junquera de Vega and C. Diaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1986, vol. II, p. 175).
A tapestry of identical design, but reduced in size is at the convent of Kremsmünster, Germany and discussed by I. de Meûter and M. Vanwelden in their Tapisseries d'Audenarde du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, Tielt, 1999, pp. 177 - 179. They indicate that an identical weaver's mark is to be found on the Kremsmünster tapestry and believed to be that of Jan Pontzeel, of whom nothing further is known.
It is interesting to note that a tapestry depicting the story of Dido and Aeneas in the Spanish Royal Collection utilizes a nearly identical central figure group, except in reverse (P. Junquera de Vega and C. Diaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1986, vol. II, p. 175).