Harvard Art Museums > 1956.241: Scenes from the Childhood of Christ 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"Scenes from the Childhood of Christ (Unidentified Artist) , 1956.241,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, May 04, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/228492. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1956.241 People Unidentified Artist Title Scenes from the Childhood of Christ Classification Textile Arts Work Type tapestry Date 1505-1515 Places Creation Place: Europe, Belgium, Brussels Culture Flemish Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/228492 Physical Descriptions Medium Textile fibers Dimensions 360.7 x 533.4 cm (142 x 210 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Manuel I of Portugal [d. 1521]; gift to Baraho Na Fragoso family, Evora Palace, in the early sixteenth century; acquired by Fernand Schutz in the nineteenth century; Demotte, Paris; French & Company, New York; purchased by Jesse Straus in the twentieth century; gift 1956 to Fogg Art Museum. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. Jesse Isidor Straus in memory of her husband, Jesse Isidor Straus, Class of 1893 Accession Year 1956 Object Number 1956.241 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 This tapestry belongs to the Redemption of Man Series and features episodes from the childhood of Christ. From left to right, it depicts part of a scene of the Magi before Herod as they discuss the birth of the Christ Child in Bethlehem; the Adoration of the Magi with a chorus of angels above; the presentation of the Christ Child in the temple; young John the Baptist (accompanied by Elizabeth and Zacharias) greeting the Christ Child; Christ disputing with the doctors in the temple; the Prophet Hosea. Although the tapestry lacks a strict chronological arrangement, there is a general progression from left to right from the sybil's prophecy to the infancy to the childhood. This fragment preserves about two thirds of the original composition; the remaining portion of the original composition is also in the Fogg collection: see 1941.30. The two pieces together make almost a whole: 1941.30, which depicts Augustus and the Tiburtine Sybil, would have appeared to the left of 1956.241, and there is a missing strip of weaving (about one foot wide) between them. A corresponding tapestry (made from the same cartoons) from a different set survives as an integral whole in the Sala Capitular of Palencia Cathedral, and helps to reconstruct the relative placement of the Fogg's two fragments. The jeweled borders now visible on the two fragments mask their fragmentary state, and were probably added in the early twentieth century by the dealer Fernand Schutz when the tapestries were in his possession. In the central scene of the adoration of the Magi, the virtues are labeled thus: Devotio, Humelitas, Castitas. The prophet Hosea on the right holds a banderole inscribed with an excerpt from his prophecy: "ex ehpto vocavi filiu meu." This corresponds to the line "ex Aegypto vocavi filium meum" (out of Egypt have I called my son) (Hosea 11:1). Publication History G. J. Demotte, La Tapisserie Gothique (Paris and New York, 1924), pl. 39-40 Adolph S. Cavallo, "Scenes from the Childhood of Christ: A Late Gothic Tapestry", Fogg Art Museum Annual Report, 1956-1957, Fogg Art Museum (1957), pp. 25-35 Adolph S. Cavallo, "The Redemption of Man: a Christian Allegory in Tapestry", Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, Winter 1958), Vol. LVI, no. 306, pp. 147-168, esp. p. 148 Highlights from the Collections of the Fogg Museum and Harvard Alumni of St. Louis, exh. cat., City Art Museum of St. Louis (St. Louis, 1964), cat. no. 18, n.p. Anna Gray Bennett, Five Centuries of Tapestry from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, 1992), p. 67, fig. 42 Adolph S. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1993), p. 442 Exhibition History Highlights from the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum and Harvard Alumni of St. Louis, City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 01/30/1964 - 03/01/1964 Related Works 1941.130 Unidentified Artist The Tiburtine Sybil Showing the Vision of the Madonna and Child to the Emperor Augustus Textile Arts 1941.128 Unidentified Artist Second and Third Articles of the Apostles' Creed Textile Arts 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
