THE TAPESTRY PANELS BRUGES AND AFTER A DESIGN BY CORNELIUS SCHUT, THIRD QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

The panels mounted on this screen are border fragments from a Bruges tapestry series entitled The Seven Liberal Arts. Comprising of nine tapestries, with eight depicting a different artform and the ninth their apotheosis, these works were woven after the designs of Cornelis Schut (1597-1655). Tapestries following Schut's cartoons for the series were woven repeatedly in Bruges and Brussels. A tapestry from the series depicting the art of music and including the same figures as this screen is in the collection of the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (inv. no. T-2947). A talented painter and draughtsman, Schut is believed to have trained under Rubens. Active in Rome and Antwerp, he created Biblical, allegorical and mythological works in the spirit of Counter-Reformation. As illustrated by the fragments on this screen, he was a successful designer creating particularly elaborate tapestry cartoons in a distinctly Italian style influenced by the works of da Cortona, Guercino, Domenichino and Guido Reni.