The tapestry shows six scenes from the Passion of Christ.   The iconography is based on accounts in the Gospels, with variations and additions taken from mystery plays. The scenes are:  Christ before Pilate, Christ before Herod, Christ returns to Pilate, the Flagellation,and Christ crowned with thorns.  Predominant colors: reds, blues, greens, purples (faded), yellows, cream, brown and black.  Most of the blacks have rotted away and been replaced with dark browns.  Some restorations, chiefly along bottom edge which was torn.

Three female and four men figures, and a dog in the foreground in a wooded setting. In the center right a sitted woman sings from a music book while another woman behind her plays an instrument. Two other standing men at her right play music. In the center left, a woman is holding a jar on her head while looking at a standing man with a dog. In the background, a fountain and a road. The border is composed of a continuous floral motif.

The design consists of a repetition of pots of flowers elaborately drawn; supporting the base of each pot are two long leaves, between each pot of flowers are festoons of small circles and single flowers; the ground is an open mesh called "Fond Chant", "Fond Double", etc.

One duplicate.  Flemish.    Flemish, Binche, Louis XIV.  Flemish.  Fausse Valenciennes.  Louis XIV.  Label.

Giant, curling acanthus leaves fill the area of the field completely.  A flowering bush rising from the central pot in the lower border sends its blossoming stalks into the field.  Five birds with brilliant plumage and two snails perch on the great acanthus leaves. The border shows rich vegetable ornaments arranged against a golden yellow ground.  In the lower border, two garlands of vegetables and flowers hang between the central pot and the polygonal plinths in the corners.  Laden pots appear near the top of each side border.  Parts of a balustered colonnette appear in each side border behind the vegetable forms.   In the upper border, garlands of flowers and fruits hang between the capital of the colonnette and the central floral motif.  Much of the foliage, and many of the flowers and fruits, extend beyond the edges of the borders and well into the area of the field.

The subject of this tapestry derives from various accounts of the deeds of Publius Cornelius Scipio, called Africanus, during the Second Punic War (218-201BC). The scene depicts an episode which took place after the battle scene shifted to Africa. Two local kings, Masinissa and Syphax, had taken up the Roman cause.  Syphax soon defected to the enemy and married Hannibal's niece, Sophonisba. Soon afterwards Scipio took him prisoner. In a vain effort to save Sophonisba, Masinissa, still loyal to the Romans, married her. Scipio then demanded Sophonisba as a captive. To spare her, Masinissa sent a messenger to her with poison. In the upper border, the cartouche bears the following inscription: ARGVITVR  NVMIDAE FIDES, MANDATQ [E] ZOPHONI TOXICA, NEC ALIAM SPEM SVPERESSE SIBI ("The Numidian's loyalty is demonstrated, and he sends poison to Sophonisba, saying that there was no other hope for her"). Masinissa (identified by the letters MA[ ] SSA on the hem of his tunic) appears at the left foreground of the encampment. Scipio (identified by the letters [  ] PIO on the lambrequins covering his left thigh) stands to the right. Two soldiers stand behind Scipio. Behind Masinissa, a man hands a cup to a woman seated in the door of a tent, a woman standing behind this pair holds a kerchief to her face. More tents and soldiers fill the distant landscape and on the horizon are hills and a castle.

Created as three separate panels, this embroidery was intended to be mounted within a hinged frame and be experienced as a triptych: opened to reveal the central Adoration of the Kings, with the Nativity of the Shepherds in the wing to the left, and the Circumcision in the wing to the right. The frame has not survived, and it is not known whether its outer wings, visible when the triptych was closed, were similarly decorated. In subject matter, iconography and design, the embroidery closely follows painted precedents: it speaks, in particular, to devices first invented by the influential Brussels-based painter Rogier van der Weyden, subsequently developed and reiterated by his successful follower, Hans Memling, who ran a large workshop in Bruges. However, the virtuoso embroiderer, or small team of highly talented embroiderers, who created this brought the prestige of their raw materials, working in richly dyed silks and precious metal threads. Whilst the subtle nuances of shade and tone in draperies and facial features were achieved by careful hatching of the silk threads in satin stitch, much of the ground, including the architecture, was executed in the or nué technique, needle woven over a warp of gold thread.

This tapestry shows early incidents in the story of Perseus.  The action takes place around and inside a building which occupies most of the upper half of the field.  On the left Danae with two attendents enters the prison chamber as Acrisius and two attendants look on.  In the center Zeus visits Danae in a shower of gold.  On the right Acrisius with attendants puts Danae and the infant Perseus to sea in a small boat.  In the foreground is a garden with six court ladies.  The border shows a dense mass of flowering vines and fruits.  A scroll in the center of the upper border is inscribed: ACRISIONIADES PLVVIO SATVS EX IOVIS AVRO  EXILIVM PERSEVS CVM GENITRICE TVLIT ("Perseus Acrisionades, begot from Jove in a shower of gold, endured exile with his mother".)

A woman is holding a lamb, standing in arch, ‘'Mansuetudo'' at her feet. Below, a winged man and two women are standing in arabesques

1476 / 1500, Flanders

1476 / 1500, Flanders

Description