SPIERING, François

Amadigi di Gaula (Amadis of Gaul) is a chivalric romance of mysterious origin, highly successful in Europe in the 15th-16th centuries. The protagonists are Amadigi and his lover, the princess Oriana. The cartoon for the tapestry was made by Karel van Mander the Elder.

In 1620 the brothers Aert (1593-1650) and Pieter (d. 1652) Spiering took over the workshop of their father, Fran�ois, in Delft. That very year the Swedish royal household, the most prestigious client of the Spiering workshop, ordered forty-six tapestry weavings, including four caparisons. The Flemish emigrant David Vinckboons supplied the designs.

Gustaf II Adolf of Sweden needed these items for the celebration of his marriage to Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg. The tapestries, surely from stock, arrived in time. But the four caparisons, comprising twelve pieces, which had to be woven with special designs, arrived late, they were completed in 1621. Aert Spiering - who was the weaver in the partnership - put his initials on one of the caparisons.

The caparisons were intended to deck out horses in processions and tournament festivities. From the four sets of caparisons two sets - one on a red ground, the other on a blue - are still preserved in Sweden. The picture shows the blue set which includes a shabrack or saddlecloth (255 x 115 cm), a shoulder cloth (132 x 137 cm), and a neck cloth (146 x 150 cm).

Fran�ois Spiering produced tapestries in Delft for an international clientele. Among those with subjects drawn from classical mythology are two series of Diana tapestries with different measurements and after different designs. Cephalus and Procris belongs to the Diana series of twelve tapestries, woven in 1610 for an unknown customer. The subject of these tapestries are taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

This is one of a series of tapestries known in the 17th century as the ‘poetic fables of Diana’. They depict mythological scenes in which Diana either plays a key role or is given a moralistic function.

The tapestry was woven in the workshop of Spiering in Delft after a cartoon by Karel van Mander the Elder.

Fran�ois Spiering produced tapestries in Delft for an international clientele. Among those with subjects drawn from classical mythology are two series of Diana tapestries with different measurements and after different designs. Niobe’s Pride belongs to the Diana series of twelve tapestries, woven in 1610 for an unknown customer. The subject of these tapestries are taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Niobe’s Pride is the only tapestry of the series bearing a date, it is signed and dated centre bottom, between the border and the field: FRANCISCVS.SPIRINVS.FECIT.ANNO 1610. The designer of the Diana series is not recorded, however scholars agree that he must have been Karel van Mander the Elder, the biographer, poet, and artist.

Amadigi di Gaula (Amadis of Gaul) is a chivalric romance of mysterious origin, highly successful in Europe in the 15th-16th centuries. The protagonists are Amadicgi and his lover, the princess Oriana. The cartoon for the tapestry was made by Karel van Mander the Elder.

This tapestry is from a series on the theme of Amadis de Gaule, a chivalric romance that was extremely popular in Europe during the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth. The series was designed by Karel van Mander the Elder whose monogram KVM is carried by some of the tapestries.

In 1620, the Swedish royal household, the most prestigious client of the Spiering workshop, ordered forty-six tapestry weavings, including four caparisons. The Flemish emigrant David Vinckboons supplied the designs.

After 1620, when Fran�ois Spiering retired, his sons Aert (1593-1650) and Pieter (d. 1652) took over the business.

This tapestry is from a series on the theme of Amadis de Gaule, a chivalric romance that was extremely popular in Europe during the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth. The series was designed by Karel van Mander the Elder whose monogram KVM is carried by some of the tapestries.

The Valois Tapestries are a series of eight tapestries depicting festivities or “magnificences” at the Court of France in the second half of the 16th century. The tapestries were executed either in the workshop of Spiering, or by Joos van Herseel and Franchoys Sweerts. The tapestries were designed by Antoine Caron. Caterina de’ Medici, queen of France, gave them to her beloved granddaughter Christine of Lorraine, when Christine came to Florence to marry her kissing cousin Ferdinand I. All but one of the hangings depict a series of magnificences that Caterina produced in the 1560s and 1570s.

At the right of the Festival on the Water are Henry III and Louise of Lorraine.