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The Just Verdict of Trajan
Flemish
1500–25
Object Place: Brussels, Flanders
Medium/Technique
Wool warp; wool, silk, and gilt-silver wefts; tapestry
Dimensions
327 x 359 cm (128 3/4 x 141 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Mrs. Harriet J. Bradbury
Accession Number30.477
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Fashion and Textiles
ClassificationsTextiles
DescriptionThis tapestry depicts scenes from a medieval legend of the Roman Emperor, Trajan. The emperor had decreed that any convicted murderer must suffer the same fate as his victim. Trajan would not deviate from this ruling even when his own son was found guilty of drowning a playmate by accidentally pushing him in the Tiber river. Against all pleas clemency, Trajan had the crown prince thrown into the river. The miraculous resurrection and return of both boys signified Heaven's approval of Trajan's unfaltering application of justice.
ProvenanceLionel Sackville-West, 2nd Baron Sackville (b. 1827 - d. 1908), Knole House, Kent; to his daughter, Victoria Sackville-West (b. 1862 - d. 1936), Knole [see note 1]; 1912, sold from the Sackville-West collection, through Jacques Seligmann et Fils, Paris, to J. Pierpont Morgan (b. 1837 - d. 1913), New York [see note 2]; August 15, 1916, sold from the Morgan collection to French and Company, New York; 1916, sold by French and Co. to George Robert White (b. 1847 - d. 1922), Boston [see note 3]; by inheritance from White to his sister, Harriet J. White (Mrs. Frederick T.) Bradbury (b. 1851 - d. 1930), Boston; 1930, bequest of Harriet J. Bradbury to the MFA. (Accession Date: July 3, 1930)
NOTES:
[1] Described as "Miracle of the Two Children" in the article "One of Only Four Collections of Gothic Tapestries in the World," Lotus Magazine, 1912, p. 57, and other press accounts of the sale of the Knole tapestries.
[2] In 1912, J. Pierpont Morgan purchased a group of tapestries from Knole House and lent them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On their sale, see Germain Seligman, Merchants of Art: 1880-1960 (New York, 1961), pp. 46-47.
[3] Study Collection of Photographs of Tapestries, Photo Archive Database online, Getty Research Institute, no. 144244. Lent to the MFA in 1916 as "Miracles of St. Claudius."
NOTES:
[1] Described as "Miracle of the Two Children" in the article "One of Only Four Collections of Gothic Tapestries in the World," Lotus Magazine, 1912, p. 57, and other press accounts of the sale of the Knole tapestries.
[2] In 1912, J. Pierpont Morgan purchased a group of tapestries from Knole House and lent them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On their sale, see Germain Seligman, Merchants of Art: 1880-1960 (New York, 1961), pp. 46-47.
[3] Study Collection of Photographs of Tapestries, Photo Archive Database online, Getty Research Institute, no. 144244. Lent to the MFA in 1916 as "Miracles of St. Claudius."