1400~ / 1410~

1400~ / 1410~

Identifier
47.101.2d
Transfer of custody
Victoria and Albert Museum
Acquisition
Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1947
Collection
Material
Technique
Depiction
Dimension
420.4 cm (height)
264.2 cm (width)
Production time
Production place
Type of object

Description

This tapestry is part of four hangings that have been reconstructed from what originally was a set of three tapestries depicting the Nine (or Ten?) Worthies. The heroes depicted included King Arthur, Joshua, David, Hector of Troy, and Julius Caesar, along with various attendants. One of the reconstructed hangings (32.130.2b, 47.101.1, 47.152) shows two of the three Hebrew Worthies in their settings and with nearly all of their attendant figures. Another represents King Arthur (32.130.2a, 47.101.4), one of the three or possibly four figures that appeared in the original tapestry devoted to the Christian Worthies, together with some attendant figures. The third and fourth pieces represent respectively Hector of Troy (47.101.2) and Julius Caesar (47.101.3), with attendant, taken from a third tapestry that depicted the three Pagan Worthies. Other fragments (47.101.5 and 49.123), showing architectural elements, bits of landscape, and the incomplete figures of three cardinals and a bishop, all apparently unconnected to those parts of the three original hangings that survive, are preserved separately in the Metropolitan Museum.