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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
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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

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