Courtesy of the Galerie Chevalier, Paris

Audience of a Prince

Datecommissioned in 1717

Workshop of Judocus de Vos Flemish, Brussels, 1661-1734

This tapestry is part of a suite of four European chinoiserie tapestries that depict imaginary interpretations of life in Asia. The tapestries feature magical scenes of exotic figures clothed in flowing robes and elaborate headdresses, fantastic animals, botanical studies, and purely imaginative flights of fancy. This suite of Flemish tapestries was commissioned for the Duke Leopold-Philippe d'Arenberg's residence in Brussels in 1717, when it was fashionable for wealthy Europeans to create rooms evoking an exotic, foreign atmosphere. Strange animals inhabit many of the scenes on this tapestry. At the top of the tapestry, a goat-like creature descends a rocky cliff, and a man does battle with large green birds, one of which attacks his hat. A parrot, sea serpent, ostrich, and crocodile are all featured in the lower half of the tapestry.

Object number2002.38.4

Provenanced' Arenberg inventory (probably 1905); [Christie's, London, 2000]; [Galerie Chevalier, Paris, France, 2000-2002]; purchased by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2002

Photo CreditCourtesy of the Galerie Chevalier, Paris

Published ReferencesWauters, Alphonse. Les Tapisseries Bruxelloises - Essai Historique sur les tapisseries et les tapissiers de haute et de basse-lice de Bruxelles. Bussels: Imprimerie Ve Julien Baertsoen, 1878; pp. 351, 352. Wace, Alan. The Marlborough Tapestries at Blenheim Palace and their relation to other Military tapestries of the War of the Spanish Succession. Phaidon: London and New York, 1968. Delmarcel, Guy. Flemish Tapestry. London: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999; p. 370. Brosens, Koenraad, "The Duke of Arenberg's Brussels Chinoiserie Tapestries by Judocus de Vos." Filo Forme vol. 4, no. 9 (Spring 2004): 3. Campbell, Thomas, ed. Tapestry in the Baroque, Threads of Splendor. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, pp. 449. Derez, Mark, et. al. (eds). Arenberg: Portrait of a Family, Story of a Collection. Exh. Cat. Leuven: Museum Leuven, 2018; p. 229, reproduced fig. 5 [not in exhibition].

Credit LineGift of the Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff Endowment for the Decorative Arts, Anonymous, General Acquisition Fund, Mildred King Dunn, Richard and Betty Hedreen, Decorative Arts Acquisition Fund, Margaret Perthou-Taylor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Art Acquisition Fund, Ann Bergman and Michael Rorick, Mr. and Mrs. David E. Maryatt

Dimensions146 7/16 x 58 1/4 in. (370.8 x 148 cm)

MediumWool, silk, metallic threads