Details

Object type

tapestry

Title

The Honours: Virtue

Artist/Maker

Bernard van Orley maker

Place Associated

Southern Netherlands, Spanish Netherlands, Brabant, Brussels (probably) (place of manufacture)

Date

before 1520 (design); circa 1525-1532 (woven)

Materials

wool (warps), wool (wefts), silk (wefts), 7 warp threads per cm, 2 ply S

Dimensions

overall: 4600 mm x 8700 mm

Description

Tapestry, one of a series (with 46.129), woven with wool and silk wefts and wool warps depicting The Honours: Virtue. VIRTUS (‘Virtue’ in the centre crowned with laurels, beats a chained faun VICIV (‘Vice’) underneath SAPIENTIA DIVINA (‘Divine Wisdom’) enthroned amongst the clouds. Two tiers of allegorical, including the virtues and senses, Biblical, classical and historical figures, each named, are arranged under or in front of a Renaissance colonnade with two cartouches set in a landscape with a rainbow bearing symbols from the zodiac. Border of flowers and fruit with three cartouches along the top.

Elizabeth Cleland states that: 'Both tapestries belong to the tapestry series called the Honours. They are part of the second (known) edition of this series. The first, and principal, edition belonged to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and remains in the Spanish Patrimonio Nacional Collection. The massive and sumptuous original Honours series presents an allegorical guide, in nine parts, to the qualities which a successful ruler should espouse – Prudence, Virtue, Faith, Honour, Fame, Justice and Nobility – bracketed between an opening representation of the fickleness of the present – Fortune – and a cautionary conclusion of what would happen if these qualities are ignored – Infamy. [...] The Burrell Collection’s Virtue and Faith come from a slightly later weaving of this series, made for Cardinal Erard de la Marck (1472–1538), which from the outset appears to have included only seven tapestries from the original Honours series: Fortune (present location unknown), Prudence (Art Institute of Chicago), Virtue (Burrell Collection), Faith (Burrell Collection), Honour (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Fame (present location unknown) and Justice (Art Institute of Chicago). By excluding Nobility and Infamy, the central piece of Cardinal Erard de la Marck’s set became Faith, rather than Honour, perhaps a conscious choice made by the churchman. It has been suggested that the ‘Coronation of Honour’, acquired by Henry VIII of England to decorate Durham House for his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, might have been a third edition of the Honours, since lost.' (Cleland, E. and Karafel, L., (2017). Glasgow Museums: Tapestries from The Burrell Collection, 445-446).

Provenance: Cardinal Erard de la Marck, Prince-Bishop of Liège (d.1538), by 1532; by descent to his godson, Robert III de la Marck, Count of Arenberg (d.1544); by descent to his sister, Countess Marguerite de la Marck, Princess of Arenberg (d.1599); by descent to her son, Robert de Ligne, Prince of Arenberg and Barbançon (d.1614); purchased by his brother, Charles de Ligne, Prince of Arenberg, Duke of Aarschot (d.1616), 1602; by descent to his son, Philippe Charles, Prince of Arenberg, Duke of Aarschot and Croy (d.1640); by descent to his son, Philippe François, Duke of Arenberg (d.1674); probably by descent to his brother, Charles-Eugène, Duke of Arenberg, Aarschot and Croy (d.1681); probably by descent to his son, Philippe-Charles-François, Duke of Arenberg, Aarschot and Croy (d.1691); by descent to his son, Louis-Phillipe, Prince and Duke of Arenberg, Duke of Aarschot and Croy (d.1754) and his wife Marie-Françoise Pignatelli, Princess of Bisaccia and Countess of Egmont (d.1766); probably by descent through the Dukes of Arenberg and Aarschot; probably by descent to Englebert-Auguste, Duke of Arenberg, Aarschot and Meppem, Prince of Recklinghausen (d.1875); by descent to his son, Englebert-Marie, Duke of Arenberg, Aarschot and Meppem, Prince of Recklinghausen (d.1974); his sale, Catalogue of ... fine tapestries including an important set of four late Gothic panels c.1530 from the collection of the Duc de Meppem … Sotheby’s, London, 17 October 1958, lot 139 (illus.), and lot 141 more

Credit Line/Donor

Purchased by the Burrell Trustees, 1958

Collection

Burrell Collection: European Tapestries

ID Number

46.130

Location

In storage