Tapestry 'Cyrus with the daughter of Gobrias' woven in wool and silk, designed by Maximiliaan de Hase, Brussels, 1771-1775

Tapestry woven in wool and silk with the subject of the presentation of Gobrias' daughter to Cyrus. The young Cyrus in a blue robe, red cloak, turban and crown, is enthroned on a dais at the right in front of draperies suspended from a tree. Before him stands Gobrias and his daughter and attendants. A slave piles gold and silver vessels before the dais. Groups of soldiers and elderly men look on. There in an encampment in the middle distance on the left. With the Arms of Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria at the top.

The tapestry (and the others in the set) were woven without borders.

The tapestry was described as 'The Emancipation of the Jews' until it was redescribed by Wendy Hefford in 1970 as “Gobrias presenting his daughter to Cyrus.

RF 1956/100. Purchased, Sotheby's, London, 27 June 1969. Four pieces of a set of five were sold in this auction, lots 21-24. Three of these were from the estate of the late Dr. G.H.L.Fitzwilliams, and were acquired by the Clothworkers' Company. The fourth belonged to his nephew John Fitzwilliams; this is the piece which the V&A acquired, having been on loan to the Museum between 1959 and 1969. The fifth tapetry from the set belonged to another member of the Fitzwilliams family. It was given to Madingley Hall, Cambridge, and was subsequently sold at Christies, in 1976, from where it was bought by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acq. no. 1976.603.


The tapestries were said by Dr Fitzwilliams to have passed by descent through the private collection of the Austrian Royal family, and to have been purchased by him from Emperor Karl of Austria, son of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, when he went into exile after his abdication in 1918. Dr Fitzwilliams had been a medical adviser to the Austrian court.

The tapestries were ordered in 1771, and delivered in 1775.

The cartoons for the set of five tapestries to which this piece belongs were painted by Maximillian de Hase, court painter to Empress Maria Teresa, with their subject taken from ancient Persian history. Gobrias, an elderly Assyrian prince, asked for King Cyrus' help to avenge the death of his son, and offered his daughter's hand as part of his pledge. The main source of stories of Cyrus' life was the Cyropaedi, a biography of him written in the 4th century BC by Xenophon of Athens. The Cyropaedia was rediscovered in Western Europe during the late medieval period as a treatise on political virtue and social organization, and continued to be widely read and respected through to the 18th century.

T.168-1969