FLEECES OF FLEECES, SECOND HALF OF THE 15th CENTURY... Lot 50

FLEECES OF FLEECES, SECOND HALF OF THE 15th CENTURY wool and silk Coat of arms of Gianfrancesco Costa di Arignano and his wife Caterina Roero di Pralormo: half-partite coat of arms, dexter, banded Or and Gules, which is Costa's; sinister, Gules with three wheels, which is Roero's. H. 206 x W. 390 cm Exceptional condition - some minor restorations This exceptional tapestry decorated with cabbage leaves and birds presents the half-partite coat of arms of the Costa-Roera family of Turin. Clusters of fruits and flowers decorate its wide border; the garlands of lemons and pomegranates are wrapped, in the lateral margins, around two columns of vaguely Ionic inspiration and with acanthus ringed shafts. With its enlarged acanthus leaves (and not aristolochia) representing a fantastic forest where macaws rub shoulders with birds of prey, our tapestry was woven in the same spirit as the Cabbage leaf with birds of the old Boccara collection (fig. 1). The composition as well as the chequered treatment of the foliage echoing the plumage of the birds are the same. It differs from ours, however, in the coloquintes that bloom in the margins and in the mascaron at the top, which in ours has been replaced by the coat of arms of its patron. The first mention of the Costa family dates back to the twelfth century, in Chieri, in the Turin area. In the 16th century there were at least three distinct branches. The most famous is that of the Counts of Arignano, borne by Gianfrancesco Costa (died 1575), governor and captain of Aosta, ambassador to Rome and knight of the Ordine Supremo. He had married Caterina Roero di Pralormo, from the Piedmont branch of the Roero family who had served the Duke of Savoy.