A triumph in dramatic narrative, this tapestry depicts The Destruction of the Palace of Armida from the series Tenture des Fragments d’Opéra. The series consisted of four tapestries illustrating episodes from two tragic operas by Lully and Quinault. While the first cartoon depicted a scene from Roland (1685) the three other tapestries, the current lot included, recreate scenes from Armide (1686), a tragic opera based on the celebrated epic poem La Gerusalemme Liberate (Jerusalem Delivered) by the Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso. Tasso's epic tells a story of the First Crusade which ended with the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and the establishment of a Christian kingdom there. Armida is the poem’s heroine, a ‘Saracen’ sorceress sent to capture and kill the Christian knight Rinaldo (Renaud). Struck with love on sight of Rinaldo, Armida casts a spell on him and they become lovers residing in her enchanted garden. When Rinaldo breaks free of the enchantment and deserts Armida, she wretchedly summons up demons to destroy her enchanted palace, the scene we see recreated in wools and silk here. The cartoon was executed by Charles Coypel (1694-1752) for the Gobelins manufactory in 1737. Six sets of the Fragments were produced by Gobelins for the French crown throughout the 18th century and a further four were commissioned privately by a number of individuals including the Duke of Zweibrücken, the Duchesse de Mazarin and the fermier général Nicolas Beaujon. A tapestry depicting the Slumber of Rinaldo that was most likely also commissioned by Beaujon and with the same dimensions as the present lot is preserved today in the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. The success of this series led the Gobelins manufactory in 1752 to commission Francois Boucher to execute cartoons on the same subject.