International studio (50.1913)

Tapestries in American Museums

flower-ribbon border is exceedingly attractive.
The superior drawing of the faces points to Italian
influence, and the massing of the personages—the
Israelites high and dry on the shore at the right,
the Egyptians a horde of struggling men and
horses in the Red Sea on the left, with a narrow
lane of water between, is impressive.
Equally interesting but of an entirely different
type is the Late Gothic fragment picturing two
scenes from the Story of the Holy Eucharist, pre-
sented by Louise Leroux to Isabelle de la Jaille,
abbess (1505-1518) of the Abbey of Ronceray
near the French city of Angers. What remained
of the set in 1888 at the Chateau du Plessis-Mace
—eleven pieces, bearing twenty-one scenes, was
scattered at public sale, one piece being that now
in the Boston Museum, illustrated and described
on pages 71-73 of my book, two in the Museum
of the Gobelins, one in the Louvre, others in a
chateau of Anjou, one in the Manor of Langlais.
About 1525, Renaissance tapestries supplanted
Gothic tapestries, and continued to flourish for a
century until supplanted in turn by the Baroque
style of Rubens and of the seventeenth century.
The tapestries woven in the last part of the Ren-
aissance period I shall designate as Late Renais-
sance, just as I employ the term Late Gothic for
Gothic tapestries woven after the opening of the
sixteenth century.
One of the most prolific designers of tapestries
in the style of the Italian Renaissance was
Raphael’s pupil, Giulio Romano, and of the sets
designed by him the Story of Scipio in twenty-two
pieces was most often copied, sometimes faith-
fully, often with accidental variations, as well as
with intentional modifications and additions, and
with many different borders. Of the original
color sketches, fifteen have been discovered in the
Cabinet of Designs at the Louvre by Colonel
d’Astier, and M. Jean Guiffrey, as told in the
former’s richly illustrated book on Scipio tapes-
tries (La Belle Tapisserie du Roy). The Cincin-
nati Art Museum has a Renaissance tapestry
woven from the original design for the Assault on
Cartagena, illustrated on page lxvii, but reduced in
width from the full picture, and apparently with
later side and bottom borders. I say apparently,
because I was obliged to examine the tapestry
from a distance of thirty feet, and could not verify
my impression. The Boston Museum also has a
Scipio tapestry, of the Late Renaissance period,
illustrated on page lxvi, picturing the Interview of
Hannibal and Scipio. But in this case the design
has been reversed, and greatly simplified and

changed, so that it is not strange that till now it
has always been described as picturing a scene
from the Story of Alexander the Great. It is
signed with the Brussels mark, a shield between
two B’s, and with a monogram formed of the let-
ters A E S T, which is found on other tapestries
woven at the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury, and may be that of Antoine Aerts, of Brus-
sels, whose age was forty-four in 1596, or more
probably of Jan Aerts who was doyen of the
Brussels tapestry weavers’ guild in 1633. Scipio
tapestries of the Renaissance, lent to the Boston
Museum by Mr. Arthur Astor Carey, both with
the same border and signed with the Brussels mark
and a monogram formed of the letters C T, with
three small +’s arranged triangularly at the right,
are Scipio Saving his Father at the Battle of the
Ticinus, and Scipio Upbraiding Masinissa, the lat-
ter illustrated on page lxix. The former is No. 2
in the Giulio Romano series, the latter is a subject
not included in that series. There is a duplicate
of the latter, with a different border and with
minor changes in the panel, in the Brussels
Museum, until now unidentified as to subject.
The identification of Mr. Carey’s tapestry was
easy because of the Latin caption in the top
border:
Arguitur Numidce tides mandatque Zophoni
Toxica nec aliam spem super esse sibi
A little shaky in its metre, but in meaning per-
fectly clear: “The Numidian is reminded of his
allegiance and sends poison to Sophonisba, with
the message that no other hope is left him.”
In the foreground Scipio is seen upbraiding
Masinissa, while in the background Masinissa’s
messenger gives Sophonisba the poison. A thrill-
ing story is that of Masinissa and Sophonisba, as
told by Livy, Appian, Polybius and Zonaras.
Betrothed to Masinissa, king of the eastern
Numidians, Sophonisba, daughter of the Cartha-
ginian general, Hasdrubal, was married during the
absence of Masinissa in Spain, to Syphax, king of
the western Numidians, in order to win him from
the Roman to the Carthaginian alliance. The
marriage accomplished its purpose, but not un-
naturally alienated Masinissa, who promptly
deserted the Carthaginians for the Romans. Sup-
ported by the latter, under the leadership of
Scipio, Masinissa finally succeeded in driving
Syphax out of eastern Numidia, and took Syphax
prisoner. Then, advancing on Cirta, the capital
of Syphax’s kingdom, he captured that and
Sophonisba in it. To Sophonisba’s appeals he
was not insensible, and in order to save his old

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