Flemish tapestry-maker and supplier to the royal courts. Born into the leading family of tapestry weavers in Brussels, Pannemaker was the most celebrated tapestry-maker of the Flemish Renaissance. He worked for the aristocracy and the principal European courts of the 16th century, supplying those of Charles I of Spain (the Emperor Charles V of Germany) and his son Philip II with magnificent tapestries.
This tapestry was woven after a design by Michiel van Coxcie in Brussels in the workshop of Willem de Pannemaker, a celebrated sixteenth-century masterweaver. It is one of a series of tapestries depicting the story of Noah. The first, eight-piece edition was made shortly after 1548 for King Sigismond II of Poland. The second, ten-piece edition was made for Philip II of Spain between 1563 and 1565. The third weaving - to which the tapestry in the Rijksmuseum belongs - was produced one year later for the illegitimate daughter of Charles V, Margaret of Parma.
