TAPESTRY FROM A SERIES ON THE STORY OF TELEMACHOS Urbain... Lot 1043

TAPESTRY FROM A SERIES ON THE STORY OF TELEMACHOS Urbain and David Leyniers, Brussels circa 1730. Based on the story by François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, known as François Fénelon (1651 - 1715) and after designs by Jean van Orley (1665-1735) and Augustin Coppens (1668-1740). Scene from the story of Telemachos, probably the duel between Telemachos and Adrastos Menelaos. The two combatants surrounded by numerous soldiers. Laterally in the background the camps of the two armies. 325 × 626 cm. Numerous restorations. Missing parts and cracks. François de Salignac was Archbishop of Cambrai, tutor to the lesser Duc de Bourgogne, grandson of the French King Louis XIV and writer. His 1694-1696 work Les aventures de Télémaque is a novel of adventure, travel and education written by Salignac for his pupil and published in 1699. In this novel, based on Greek mythology but freely invented, Salignac leads Telemachos, the son of the hero Odysseus, and his protector Athena (goddess of wisdom and virtue), in the guise of the old teacher, Mentor, through various ancient states in search of the missing Odysseus, in most of which, through the fault of false and corrupt advisers to the ruler, difficulties similar to those in France in the late 1690s prevail. Salignac describes how these problems can be solved through Mentor's wisdom, peaceful exchanges with neighbors, and reforms. For this reason, "Les aventures de Télémaque" was immediately interpreted at the French royal court as Salignac's barely concealed criticism of Louis XIV's absolutist style of government, as a critique of the king's foreign and economic policies; the figure of Mentor was seen as a kind of mouthpiece for the writer. At the beginning of 1699 François de Salignac lost his teaching post; when "Télémaque" was published in April of the same year, initially anonymously and without the author's consent, Louis XIV banished Salignac from court. The work "Les aventures de Télémaque", however, became a widely read book for young people in France and was considered an important milestone of the beginning Enlightenment. The motif was extremely popular in the 18th century and was used in operas, plays, paintings and tapestries. The Brussels entrepreneurs Urbain and Daniel Leynier created a series of tapestries based on the designs of Jan van Orley and Augustin Coppens. A complete series is preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. (Cf. Hermann Schmitz. The Viennese Gobelin Collection. Vienna 1922. p. 20 as well as illustration plate XLIII, of a tapestry with the subject Telemach at the table of Calypso from the same series). This shows the almost identical border. Compare also: Guy Delmarcel, La tapisserie flamande du XVe au XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1999. p. 316/317.