$14,000
Estimate: $6,000 - $10,000
The Collection of Amb. & Mrs. Alexander Weddell - The Virginia House Museum
Auction: April 10, 2019 11:00:00 AM EDT
Provenance: Acquired in Spain, 1941.
The Collection of Ambassador and Mrs. Alexander Weddell, Richmond, Virginia.
Deaccessioned by The Virginia House Museum to benefit future preservation, acquisitions, and care of collections.
This tapestry is one of two panels from the same series owned by the Weddells, the other of which remains in situ at Virginia House. It is unclear what the primary scene depicts, though the story is almost certainly Mythological in nature. The present lot does not appear to relate to any recognizable event or depiction of Alexander the Great, as Alexander Weddell suggests:
"In the absence of inscriptions it becomes difficult to determine what subjects or events they illustrate. One conjecture is that they represent the Triumphs of Alexander the Great. Their martial character and 'the pomp and circumstance' dedicated, worthy of a world conqueror, lend weight to this supposition. Yet another surmise is that Biblical scenes and incidents inspired the makers of the cartoons, their simple faith prompting them to give to leaders of primitive and pastoral folk a setting of opulence and splendor only to be found surrounding the sovereigns of rich and powerful peoples. The various subjects treated in the unusually beautiful borders are too diverse in character to help toward a solution for they are of a pagan or mythological or renaissance character. In one panel is recorded the story of the noble Euphrasia visiting her father, Evander, in prison, where he lies condemned to die by starvation, and herself suckling him to keep the vital spark alive. In still other divisions are sibyls, and shepherdesses and swains, and miniatures of mediaeval [sic] gardens. Also depicted is the tragi-comedy of the fall of the Welfic fortress of Weinberg to Conrad of Hohenstaufen in 1140. The women alone were to be spared with what they could carry away. The study Swabian came forth bearing on their shoulders their condemned husbands or sweethearts! One of these appears in the medallion on the lower right."