Scenes from the Childhood of Christ

Artists

Description

This tapestry belongs to the Redemption of Man Series and features episodes from the childhood of Christ. From left to right, it depicts part of a scene of the Magi before Herod as they discuss the birth of the Christ Child in Bethlehem; the Adoration of the Magi with a chorus of angels above; the presentation of the Christ Child in the temple; young John the Baptist (accompanied by Elizabeth and Zacharias) greeting the Christ Child; Christ disputing with the doctors in the temple; the Prophet Hosea. Although the tapestry lacks a strict chronological arrangement, there is a general progression from left to right from the sybil's prophecy to the infancy to the childhood. This fragment preserves about two thirds of the original composition; the remaining portion of the original composition is also in the Fogg collection: see 1941.30. The two pieces together make almost a whole: 1941.30, which depicts Augustus and the Tiburtine Sybil, would have appeared to the left of 1956.241, and there is a missing strip of weaving (about one foot wide) between them. A corresponding tapestry (made from the same cartoons) from a different set survives as an integral whole in the Sala Capitular of Palencia Cathedral, and helps to reconstruct the relative placement of the Fogg's two fragments. The jeweled borders now visible on the two fragments mask their fragmentary state, and were probably added in the early twentieth century by the dealer Fernand Schutz when the tapestries were in his possession. In the central scene of the adoration of the Magi, the virtues are labeled thus: Devotio, Humelitas, Castitas. The prophet Hosea on the right holds a banderole inscribed with an excerpt from his prophecy: "ex ehpto vocavi filiu meu." This corresponds to the line "ex Aegypto vocavi filium meum" (out of Egypt have I called my son) (Hosea 11:1).

Dimensions

360.7 x 533.4 cm (142 x 210 in.)

Provenance

Manuel I of Portugal [d. 1521]; gift to Baraho Na Fragoso family, Evora Palace, in the early sixteenth century; acquired by Fernand Schutz in the nineteenth century; Demotte, Paris; French & Company, New York; purchased by Jesse Straus in the twentieth century; gift 1956 to Fogg Art Museum.