hanging, Bacchus or Autumn, embroidered, wool and silk on linen canvas, from series of the Elements and Seasons, France, about 1683

This hanging is an allegory of Autumn, probably depicting Louis’s second child, Louis César de Bourbon (1672 -83), comte de Vexin, as the young Bacchus or Autumn. He stands beneath the arbour, surrounded by a garland of white and black grapes, crowned with a garland of vine leaves and grapes, with a thyrse in his right hand and a bunch of grapes in his left hand. He is dressed in a leopard skin and Roman-style sandals, and behind him stands a leopard. The three signs of the zodiac associated with Autumn appear on the hanging: above the figure, Scorpio; on the lower left, Libra; and on the lower right, Sagittarius. Arabesques, grotesque masks, little birds, and abundant fruit and flowers complete the ornamentation.

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Louis XIV of France’s former mistress Madame de Montespan (1641 -1707) commissioned for her personal use a set of embroidered wall hangings depicting the Elements and Seasons, with herself, Louis, and six of their children taking the parts of the personified elements. The embroideries were worked at the Parisian convent of Saint Joseph de la Providence in the 1680s. Four of the set, with silver gilt and silver grounds, are now in the Metropolitan Museum, but a small number of the other versions are known with slight variations, including this piece and the V&A’s, Jupiter or Air (T.106-1978), which is from the same set. Both of the latter have a pink wool rather than gold thread background, which was evidently added in the late 19th century when the taste for 17th and 18th-century French decorative arts was at its height. The two hangings probably come from the collection of Louis Phillippe and were described at the time of the sale at Monceaux in 1852 as ‘avec des fond non brodés’ (‘with ground not embroidered’).

Louis XIV of France’s former mistress Madame de Montespan (1641 -1707) commissioned for her personal use a set of embroidered wall hangings depicting the Elements and Seasons, with herself, Louis, and six of their children taking the parts of the personified elements. The embroideries were worked at the Parisian convent of Saint Joseph de la Providence in the 1680s. Four of the set, with silver gilt and silver grounds, are now in the Metropolitan Museum, but a small number of the other versions are known with slight variations, including this piece and the V&A’s, Jupiter or Air (T.106-1978), which is from the same set.

This hanging is an allegory of Autumn, probably depicting Louis’s second child, Louis César de Bourbon (1672 -83), comte de Vexin, as the young Bacchus or Autumn.

T.37-2018