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Large Leaf Verdure with Animals and Birds
Southern Netherlands, possibly Bruges, 1525/50
1525-1550
- Medium
- Wool; slit, single dovetailed, and double interlocking tapestry weave Warp: Count: 4 warps per cm; wool: S-ply of two Z-spun elements; diameters: 1.0–1.5 mm Weft: Count: varies from 15 to 36 wefts per cm; wool: S-ply of two Z-spun…
- Classification
- Textile
- Dimensions
- 599.2 × 336.4 cm (235 7/8 × 132 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Belgium
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Textiles
- Credit line
- Gift of the Antiquarian Society of the Art Institute of Chicago through the Jessie Landon Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This visually rich tapestry is filled by large leaves, vividly colored flowers, and winding shoots, a style known as large leaf verdure. Numerous real and fantastic animals—including falcons, griffins, lions, monkeys, peacocks, and pheasants—fly, hide, and perch amidst the greenery of the purely imagined plants. Only a handful of tapestries with the same animals and composition are known, though the same large leaf motif was used for the background of several tapestries depicting religious scenes, as well as in other tapestries to represent what was thought to be a realistic jungle background. It is thus impossible to determine whether this hanging and its companion pieces served a symbolic or decorative function—although these purposes are clearly not mutually exclusive.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
