A 16th century German armorial tapestry cushion cover
Circa 1530-1550. Perhaps woven in Nuremburg.
Woven in wool, silk and metal thread on linen warp threads, with two escutcheons below a seraph with an aulos, or double flute, that below the shields becomes two tasselled cords, on a ground imitative of a 16th century Italian green silk damask or cut and uncut figured velvet, with two roses and two ‘water flowers’ to the corners, within a red border.
The left hand escutcheon bears the Keutschach arms of a turnip on a blue ground, and the right hand has a flower and a chalice within a hexagram.
The Keutschach family had their seat in the Carinthian district of Klagenfurt-Land, on the banks of the Keutschacher See, their wealth owed primarily to agriculture , and this fundamental reason for the use of the turnip on their coat of arms was later embellished with variations of a legend involving the most celebrated member of the family, Leonhard von Keutschach (1442(?)-8th June 1519). Elected Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg in 1495, von Keutschach ruled successfully until his death, reconciling an internally riven Salzburg, reforming and greatly enriching the economy, and fortifying its defences, with the result that under his authority the principality became one of the richest in the Holy Roman Empire, and an environment within which art and culture began to flourish. The tradition later arose that, when still a schoolboy, Leonhard had visited his uncle who admonished him for either his scholarly ineptitude and apathy, or for his reluctance to work the fields. An impertinent reply provoked the uncle to hurl an uprooted turnip at the departing child and to warn him that a lack of application would lead to his ostracism from the family, and this episode proved the spring for his future diligence and ultimate success.
The chalice and flower within a six pointed star is perhaps the emblem of a brewers' guild, the hexagram being the brewers’ alchemical symbol. One of the oldest guild emblems of brewers and maltsters, it was prevalent in Nuremburg and other areas of southern Germany from the later Middle Ages. The presence of a chalice behind the flower would serve to reinforce this assumption. It was not commonly recognised as representative of Judaism prior to its use in 17th century Prague, and was not widely adopted as such until the 19th century.
In this context, Leonhard von Keutschach's abortive attempt to impose a ban on the production of good quality beer by private breweries in Salzburg so that the production and sale of beer from his own breweries should prosper is compelling, but it is more likely that this tapestry cushion cover was commissioned to commemorate the marriage of a member of the Keutschach family to the scion of a family whose wealth may have derived initially from brewing.
A silk of the first half of the 16th century in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number: 46.156.116, has a version of the design reproduced in tapestry here as the background. Interestingly, the cataloguing of this silk postulates that this pattern was widely used in the context of matrimony.
The two flowers alternating as decoration to the corners, a wild, or dog, rose and a flower reminiscent of the ‘water flower’ found in 15th century opus anglicanum embroidery, perhaps also connote marriage, the first epitomizing the female partner, the second the male. As Frank & Peter Rhodes stated in the article ‘Medieval Embroidered ‘Water Flowers’’ (2016, Textile History, 47:2, 243-248, DOI: 10.1080/00404969.2016.1211441) “The tall central cones… (of these latter) …owe more to the idea of the sword than to elongated iris stems”.
The aulos, a wind instrument of ancient origin with two pipes that is sometimes termed a double flute or double oboe and is held here in the mouth of the presiding seraph, is mentioned in fragment 44 of Sappho’s poetry as accompanying the song of the maidens at the wedding of Hector and Andromache. The instrument is also named in both Homer (Iliad 18.490–496) and in the epic poem, attributed in antiquity to Hesiod, The Shield of Herakles (270-284) in connection with a wedding.
Slightly later German heraldic tapestry cushions are illustrated as plate 175 of Gobel, III. Teil, Band 1 Wandteppiche Die germanischen und slawischen Länder, and as plate 74b of III Teil Band 2, but comparisons with the current panel can also be made to a fragment, dated to circa 1525 and attributed to Strasbourg, in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, ID number 46.141, and to a tapestry portrait of Augustus I of Saxony, dated to 1550 and woven in Leipzig, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, object number 67.55.97, which both share the use of the same textile design as a background.
This design is also visible in another tapestry in the Burrell, ID number 46.125, and to one in the Art Institute of Chicago, ref no. 1968.744. Both are of a similar date to the previous two examples, but are attributed to Sint-Truiden in the Southern Netherlands. However, as Lorraine Karafel and Elizabeth Cleland note in their cataloguing of the Strasbourg panel mentioned above for Tapestries from the Burrell Collection (publ. Philip Wilson, 2017, cat. no. 120, the use of linen warp threads, as used for both that and the current tapestry cushion cover, is symptomatic of German tapestry production. This is also the case with a German tapestry hanging with a discrete simulated silk textile pattern in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 49.144, dated to circa 1475-1520, and to a closely related hanging shown by Sam Fogg Ltd as part of the 2018 exhibition Late Medieval and Renaissance Textiles, and illustrated as no 16 in the accompanying catalogue. Both of these are attributed to Nuremburg.
The tapestry 59cm (23¼”) high and 56.2cm (22⅛”) wide, in a frame 77.5cm (30½”) high and 74.6cm (29⅜”) wide.
