Harvard Art Museums > 1959.112.1: Hawking Scene Textile Arts Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Hawking Scene (Unidentified Artist) , 1959.112.1,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 23, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/214594. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text Woven in wool, tapestries like these covered the walls of castles, acting as insulation from the damp and cold. They were also used as courtly decoration, their cost and display of aristocratic life indicating the owners’ high social status. In this tapestry, a company of noblemen sets out for the hunt, a patrician activity that followed established rules affirming social hierarchies. The figures, dressed in elaborate robes and fine hats, include one who is bearded and wears a turban, suggesting a connection to the Islamic world. The aristocratic men’s finery contrasts with the plain clothes of the peasants they meet on the right. It is not known for whom this tapestry was made, but it was probably woven in Flanders, perhaps in Tournai, a region famous for the production of these textiles. Identification and Creation Object Number 1959.112.1 People Unidentified Artist Title Hawking Scene Classification Textile Arts Work Type tapestry Date c. 1495-1515 Places Creation Place: Europe, Belgium, Tournai Culture Flemish Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/214594 Physical Descriptions Medium Wool Dimensions 319.4 x 296.2 cm (125 3/4 x 116 5/8 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Herbert Lee Pratt, New York. Emmet Blakeney Gleason, bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1959. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Emmet Blakeney Gleason Accession Year 1959 Object Number 1959.112.1 Division European and American Art Contact am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description A hawking company emerges from a castle to set out on a hunt. Two noblemen are shown on horseback while three others are on foot. They hold up hawks, a hunting horn, a sword and a bow and arrow. In the right foreground we see peasants, one of whom has taken off his cap to greet the nobles. The landscape background features two rustics and cottages. The tapestry misses its original borders and it was likely cut down on all sides. The style, subject and landscape with milles-fleurs and elevated horizon are characteristic of tapestry production in Tournai around 1515. Publication History Phyllis Ackerman, The Rockefeller McCormick Tapestries: - Three Early Sixteenth Century Tapestries (New York, 1932), vol. 1, p. 11.; vol. 2, plate 27. Jean-Paul Asselberghs, Tapisseries Héraldiques et de la vie Quotidienne, exh. cat. (Tournai, 1970), no. 20, repr. in b/w Jean-Paul Asselberghs, Les tapisseries flamandes aux états-unis d'amérique, Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (Brussels, 1974), p. 16 Exhibition History The World of the Middle Ages in the Thiebold Schilling Chronicle, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 10/07/1974 - 11/08/1974 32Q: 2440 Medieval, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/12/2017 Subjects and Contexts Google Art Project Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
