BRUSSELS, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY, PROBABLY DESIGNED AFTER PRINTS BY MAARTEN VAN HEEMSKERK

This tapestry forms part of the series of The Wonders of the World, based on Pedro Mexia of Seville's Silva de varia Leccion which consisted of eight pieces (including the Colosseum that traditionally does not form part of the seven wonders). Six panels, Zeus at Olympia, The Temple of Diana at Ephesus, The Colosseum, The Colossus of Rhodes, The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and The Pyramids of Egypt, are known from extant surviving pieces. Several sets comprising the first four subjects survive, including one sold at Georges Petit, Paris, 18 June 1920, lots 55 - 58. Another set survives in the Contini-Bonacossi collection, the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, and the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, which is signed by one of the most skilled weavers of the period, Jacob Geubels. Other tapestries possibly from the same set as the offered lot are The Statue of Zeus formerly in the collection of Coralie Walker Hanna, Cleveland, The Temple of Diana at Djursholm Castle near Stockholm, and the Colosseum in the Gemeentemuseum her Markiezenhof in Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands.

The weaver's signature on this tapestry has not yet been identified. It is identical to that on the Colosseum tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which has 'element' borders. Edith Standen offers various suggestions, including Willem Segers, Francis Sweerts, Niclaes de Canter, Nikolaus Le Coustre or even Isaac van Asperen, but none can be attributed the work with certainty.

(E. A. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, cat, 19, vol. I, pp. 154 - 161).