PROBABLY BRUGES, SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY

Dating from the mid-late 17th century, and probably from Bruges, this tapestry is almost certainly from the series of the ‘Four Seasons’, and is an allegory of ‘Summer’. The scene is emblematic of the season; the Roman goddess of grain and agriculture, Ceres, is shown with her daughter, Proserpina, goddess of fertility, and in the background, sheaves of corn and reapers are at work. Similarly, to another Bruges tapestry of Les Vendanges in the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, classical gods are depicted alongside contemporary 17th century figures (G. Delmarcel, E. Duverger, Bruges et La Tapisserie, Bruges, 1987, p. 449, no. 63). Although the painting or engraving from which the tapestry cartoon derives cannot be identified, the representation of agricultural workers may be inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-69). Closely related elaborate borders of fruit, flowers and idiosyncratic animals and birds are on another set of Bruges tapestries of the ‘Months of Lucas’, dated 1650, now in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna (See ‘January’ in R. Bauer, ‘L’ancienne collection imperial de tapisseries du Kunsthistorisches Museum de Vienne’, La tapisserie au XVIIe siècle et les collections européennes, 18-19 October 1996, Paris, 1999, p. 119, fig. 2; see ‘April’ in ed. T.P. Campbell, exhibition catalogue, Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor, 17 October 2007-6 January 2008, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, p. 206, fig. 101).