designed ca. 1540, woven ca. 1570, Brussels

designed ca. 1540, woven ca. 1570, Brussels

Identifier
41.190.134
Transfer of custody
Victoria and Albert Museum
Acquisition
Bequest of George Blumenthal, 1941
Collection
Material
Technique
Depiction
Dimension
432 cm (height)
719 cm (width)
Production time
Production place
Type of object

Description

Picking up the narrative from the tapestry of Aglauros’s Vision of the Bridal Chamber of Herse displayed near-by, this is the final episode in the story of the god Mercury’s love for the mortal princess of Athens, Herse. Emboldened by her jealous vision of Mercury and Herse’s union, Herse’s sister Aglauros barred his entry to her sister’s apartments. In his anger and frustration, Mercury transformed Aglauros into stone; in the tapestry, we see her disappearing into the door-frame. Mercury can seen again at the right, flying away and leaving the longed-for union with Herse unfulfilled. Such was the appeal of Lodi’s designs for this tapestry series that his cartoon-models were used, and reused, for decades: Willem de Pannnemaker, one of the most admired and successful master-weavers working in Brussels, directed the weaving of this sumptuous edition approximately thirty years after it was designed.