SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY, PROBABLY BY RAPHAEL DE LA PLANCHE, ALEXANDRE DE COMANS OR THE GALERIES DU LOUVRE, AFTER SIMON VOUET

The present tapestry is one from a series depicting scenes from the story of Rinaldo and Armida after paintings by Simon Vouet. The decorative paintings were traditionally thought to have been executed for the Hôtel du Bullion, but recent scholarship has suggested that they were painted for Henry de Fourcy, Surintendent des Bâtiments under Louis XIII, for his château de Chessy (see J. Thuillier, Vouet, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1990-1, p. 512). The painting depicting Rinaldo abandoning Armida is illustrated in W. Crelly, The Painting of Simon Vouet, Yale University Press, 1962, fig. 128 (cat. 119). The first sets from this series were woven in the ateliers of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel during the first half of the 17th century. The present tapestry probably falls into M. Fenaille's category of "unrefined" tapestries woven in the Parisian ateliers during the second half of the 17th century. See M. Fenaille, Etat général des tapisseries de la manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1924, vol. I, pp. 319-328, 'Renaud et Armide. D'après Vouet'. Another closely related example from this series depicting Rinaldo in the arms of Armida was sold by Hôtel Drouot, Paris 17 June 1909, lot 1, as Brussels.