The Virgin's Wedding H. 3.33 x W. 1.81 m H. 10ft... Lot 13

The Virgin's Wedding H. 3.33 x W. 1.81 m H. 10ft 11 x W. 5ft 11 Iconography: The Virgin, seen in profile, and Joseph, both crowned with flowers, are kneeling. Joseph holds the blossoming almond branch that designated him as the Virgin's future husband, among the other suitors whose branches had not blossomed. Our tapestry does not reproduce the entire composition of the painting, as it is of a narrow format known as entrefenêtre. About the model: See Rosenberg, 1995, The Marriage of the Virgin, 1647, oil on canvas. Collection of the Duke of Sutherland, on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, catalog of the Nicolas Poussin Exhibition, no. 113, p. 320. The Marriage of the Virgin was the last painting in Poussin's Sacraments series. The Sacraments The two tapestries presented here are part of a hanging comprising seven tapestries, since there are seven sacraments. This sale presents the sacraments of Holy Orders and Matrimony, set in the context of the life of the Virgin Mary and the life of Christ. The tapestries were woven in Brussels in the first half of the 18th century, probably in the workshop of Pieter van den Hecke, active from 1703 to 1752, after 17th-century models by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Origin of the model: Poussin painted the subject of the Seven Sacraments twice between 1638 and 1647. The first set, painted for his Roman patron Cassiano del Pozzo, was completed before his return to France. The second version was executed in Rome in 1647 for Paul Fréart de Chantelou, secretary to the Superintendent of Royal Buildings in France. It was probably the engravings of this second version of the Seven Sacraments that served as the model for the hanging woven in Brussels in the following century. The engravings by Jean Pesne, after Poussin, are reproduced in the catalog of the Exhibition Poussin et Moïse, du dessin à la tapisserie, Académie de France à Rome, 2011, see chapter by Jean Vittet, (op. cit) (vol. I pp. 87-94). Materials and condition: Finely woven in wool and silk - wool warp (8 warp threads per cm), wool and silk weft Good condition, maintenance restorations. Reweaving in place of old coat of arms. Provenance : French private collection, Château in Normandy Related tapestries: The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco owns a tapestry entitled La Confirmation (catalog n°61 p.204). This tapestry and our two tapestries belonged to the same ensemble, as all three pieces show traces of a small reweaving in place of a coat of arms. A tapestry depicting Le repas chez Simon le Pharisien (The Meal at Simon the Pharisee's) was sold at auction in France (catalog page found in Galerie Chevalier's documentation, but without a precise date or place). Bibliographical references for both tapestries: - Louis Réau, 1957, Iconographie de l'Art Chrétien, Tome second, Iconographie de la Bible, vol II, Nouveau Testament p. 314. - Anna Gray Bennett, 1992, Five Centuries of Tapestry from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, revised edition. - Pierre Rosenberg, catalog of the Nicolas Poussin Exhibition, Grand Palais, Paris, September 1994 - January 1995. - Jean Vittet, Poussin et la tapisserie: dernières découvertes, nouvelles observations, in Poussin et Moïse. Du dessin à la tapisserie, cat. exp. Rome, Académie de France - Villa Medicis, Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Galerie des Gobelins, 2011, p. 86-94.