Tapestry

This tapestry, along with two others in the Chazen collection, depicts frolicking cherubs or bacchantes either in the act of making wine or of consuming it. In the center of each panel, within cartouches, are vignettes of the harvest of grapes, the making of wine, or the celebration of its special properties. All three are part of a larger tapestry cycle honoring wine. Two additional panels of the cycle were previously donated by George Mosse to the Leo Baeck Institute in New York City. One of these two features the Medici family coat of arms, which indicates the tapestry was created under the rule of Ferdinando I (ruled 1587–1609). Ferdinando’s father, Cosimo I (ruled 1537–1574), had set up two tapestry workshops in Florence in 1545, followed by a state tapestry manufactory. These tapestries may have been made at the state manufactory—Ferdinando increased its non-court commissions during his rule to increase its profitability. Based on their iconography and size, they were likely made for an individual outside the court, perhaps for the dining or dessert room of a country house. The borders of the tapestries are likely not original, perhaps added in the nineteenth century. A smaller, square sixth panel from the same tapestry cycle is in the collection of UW–Madison's Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection