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Tapestry (possibly a fragment from an altar frontal): Adoration of the Magi
Flemish (Brussels)
1475–1500
Object Place: Possibly Brussels, Flanders
Medium/Technique
Wool warp; wool, silk and metal-wrapped wefts; tapestry weave
Dimensions
119.5 x 130.5 cm (47 1/16 x 51 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Charles Potter Kling Fund
Accession Number49.505
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Fashion and Textiles
ClassificationsTextiles
DescriptionThe Magi, Joseph, and a donor stand on flower-covered meadow (millefleurs). The left part of tapestry on which Madonna and Child originally appeared has been cut off. The donor stands beside a white horse at right end with an unidentified armorial shield over his left shoulder. The shepherds, the angel of the Lord, and a walled city appear in background. Woven with polychrome silk and wool yarns and metallic threads. Seven warp threads to cm.
ProvenanceEmile Gaillard (b. 1821 - d. 1902), Paris; by descent to his widow, Amelie Vassal Gaillard, Paris; May 15-17, 1916, posthumous Mme. Gaillard sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 189 for fr. 42000 to A. Hamburger Jeune Antiquités. November 28, 1919, sent by Duveen Bros., Paris to Duveen Bros., New York (stock no. 27307); August 1, 1921, sold by Duveen to Clarence H. Mackay (b. 1874 - d. 1938), Roslyn, NY [see note 1]; 1939, Mackay estate consigned for sale to Jacques Seligmann and Co., New York; 1940, sold by Seligmann to A. M. Adler (dealer; b. 1902 - d. 1985), New York, probably for Frederic Goldstein Oppenheimer (b. 1881 - d. 1963), San Antonio [see note 2]; 1949, consigned by Oppenheimer, through A. M. Adler, to Raphael Stora, New York (stock no. C-108-23); 1949, sold by Stora to the MFA for $7500. (Accession Date: June 9, 1949)
NOTES:
[1] Duveen Bros. Records, Getty Research Institute, Business Records: Series I.A, New York House, Stock Book 1921 (Box 15) and Series II.I., Collectors' Files, Mackay, H. 1 (Box 481). [2] Archives of American Art, Jacques Seligmann and Co. Records, Clarence H. Mackay Collection, Box 235, folder 1, Adler, A. M. Adler helped Dr. Oppenheimer build his collection of medieval art.
NOTES:
[1] Duveen Bros. Records, Getty Research Institute, Business Records: Series I.A, New York House, Stock Book 1921 (Box 15) and Series II.I., Collectors' Files, Mackay, H. 1 (Box 481). [2] Archives of American Art, Jacques Seligmann and Co. Records, Clarence H. Mackay Collection, Box 235, folder 1, Adler, A. M. Adler helped Dr. Oppenheimer build his collection of medieval art.