This ewer is one of the largest and most impressive examples of a low-fire white pottery made in France in the middle years of the sixteenth century. Known as Saint-Porchaire ware, this group of elaborate and often architectural pieces is distinguished by the complex interlace designs of colored clays inlaid into the cream-colored earthenware body. These wares were believed to have been produced in the town of Saint-Porchaire in western France, but a Paris origin has also been suggested due to their technical sophistication and the ambition of their designs.[Jeffrey H. Munger, 2011]

With the distinctive long, low format of a wainscot tapestry, this hanging can be attributed with confidence to weavers working in the great Flemish city of Bruges, who since the mid-fifteenth century had sought to distinguish themselves from the massive, monumental narrative and allegorical wall hangings perfected by Brussels weavers, by specializing in armorial tapestries against mille-fleurs grounds, as well as in similarly formatted choir tapestries. As experienced in this tapestry, by the mid-sixteenth century Bruges’ cartoon designers and weavers updated conventional flower-strewn mille-fleurs by developing a warmer palette and by massing the flowers so closely together that the dark blank ground is almost obscured. The floral pattern becomes a glorious, abstract mass of dappling color; in technique, daring weaving styles like eccentric wefts (which deviate in thin sinuous lines from the regular grid of the warp and weft) are manipulated to represent the stems and lower leaves of the plants. Wainscot tapestries were particularly popular amongst English clientele (Antwerp weavers called them “op Engelse wijze”- ‘English style’) and on the Italian peninsula, where they were in high demand as “spaliere” to hang over cassone chests. Although the armorials suspended within the three garlanded landscape cartouches have not yet been identified, it is likely they are associated with one of the Florentine, Genovese, Venetian or Lucchese families connected with the Bruges’ markets through trade and banking.

Dos fragmentos textiles unidos con una costura. Confeccionados en seda azul con ligamento raso, con aplicación de bordado a base de hilo metálico dorado entorchado con alma de lino, que dibuja roleos y cabezas de animales, con elementos en sedas polícromas. En la parte superior se conserva un fragmento de escudo a base de anillado de seda en su color.  Se conservan restos de orillo en un lateral e…  
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1550~, France

1550~, France

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