拍品專文
Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland), unlike the Lowlands and Paris, never had an industrial tapestry production. There were individual attempts to set up ateliers such as that of Peter Spierincx before 1614 and by Nicolas and Marten Hevel in 1646, but no significant and recorded works remain from them. This tapestry can, however, with near certainty be attributed to this city as it ties in very closely with prominent patrician families of the region. The arms in the border are those of Eggert von Kempen, Mayor of Danzig, and his wife Clara, daughter of the rich Royal Polish mercantile agent, Simon Bahr.
In 1605 both Simon Bahr and his wife died within eight days of each other and left their two daughters to resolve the inheritance. The dispute that arose between them was not resolved for fifteen years. In honour of their parents and in celebration of their new accord, Judith, married to Hans Speimann von der Speie, architect of the then famous 'Steffenhaus', and Clara errected a richly decorated marble monument in the St. Marien church in Danzig in 1620.
This tapestry was almost certainly commissioned on this occasion and commemorates the outstanding diplomatic and mercantile abilities of Simon Bahr. It is divided into four separate narrative scenes, depicting the protagonist in a war council, a peace council, a provisions council and a trade council, the positions for which he was famous. When Eggert's wife Clara died in 1622, he married Dorothea, who, following his death in 1636 and her own in 1644, bequeathed most of her belongings to charitable foundations. Unfortunately the whereabouts of this tapestry is lost thereafter.
The fantastic quality of this tapestry would indicate that it was commissioned from a highly skilled travelling weaver, who had probably trained in the main weaving centres in Holland and in Paris. It is possible that he is the unnamed weaver who was sent to Königsberg (Kaliningrad) by Johan Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, in 1619, of whom all trace thereafter is lost. In the design of the tapestry various elements are fused from engravings of Jean Le Clerc of Paris from the late 16th Century for the side borders, to the architecture of the guild hall of Danzig, built in 1605 by Anthony van Obbergen, for the herm pilasters and the inscribed tablets, as well as drawings by the Parisian pharmacist Nicolas Houel for the warrior figures in the second panel (H. Goebel, Wandteppiche, Leipzig, 1935, pp. 141-143).
In 1605 both Simon Bahr and his wife died within eight days of each other and left their two daughters to resolve the inheritance. The dispute that arose between them was not resolved for fifteen years. In honour of their parents and in celebration of their new accord, Judith, married to Hans Speimann von der Speie, architect of the then famous 'Steffenhaus', and Clara errected a richly decorated marble monument in the St. Marien church in Danzig in 1620.
This tapestry was almost certainly commissioned on this occasion and commemorates the outstanding diplomatic and mercantile abilities of Simon Bahr. It is divided into four separate narrative scenes, depicting the protagonist in a war council, a peace council, a provisions council and a trade council, the positions for which he was famous. When Eggert's wife Clara died in 1622, he married Dorothea, who, following his death in 1636 and her own in 1644, bequeathed most of her belongings to charitable foundations. Unfortunately the whereabouts of this tapestry is lost thereafter.
The fantastic quality of this tapestry would indicate that it was commissioned from a highly skilled travelling weaver, who had probably trained in the main weaving centres in Holland and in Paris. It is possible that he is the unnamed weaver who was sent to Königsberg (Kaliningrad) by Johan Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, in 1619, of whom all trace thereafter is lost. In the design of the tapestry various elements are fused from engravings of Jean Le Clerc of Paris from the late 16th Century for the side borders, to the architecture of the guild hall of Danzig, built in 1605 by Anthony van Obbergen, for the herm pilasters and the inscribed tablets, as well as drawings by the Parisian pharmacist Nicolas Houel for the warrior figures in the second panel (H. Goebel, Wandteppiche, Leipzig, 1935, pp. 141-143).