In 1716, the Viscounty of the Oudburg in Ghent commissioned a series of tapestries devoted to the Exaltation of the Gods. The Viscounty was a fief of the County of Flanders, located within the walls of the Counts’ Castle. Barely a year later, the tapestries were hung in the Castellany. The Oudburg arms appears in the middle of each tapestry. Oudburg College was closed down during the period of French revolutionary occupation and the Viscounty building was demolished. The series ended up in the Museum of Fine Art in 1904, having had several homes in the interim. The last of the five tapestries, The Exaltation of Venus, offers a kind of summary of the others. The Goddess of Love, surrounded by putti or amoretti, is enthroned on a cloud from where she rules over land and sea. Humans and gods alike are under her dominion – she is admired by all Olympus, represented here by Jupiter and his wife Juno, Apollo, Mars and the demigod Hercules with his lion-skin and club. Neptune and his retinue gaze up at her longingly from the sea, and even the chaste Diana, slumbering beneath a canopy, is the target of an amoretto’s arrows and the prying eyes of satyrs. In the upper left of the tapestry, we see Venus and Mars in a adulterous embrace. Mars symbolises the thirst for power, while Venus stands for the tenderness of love – opposing forces that merge harmoniously in the balanced personality.
| Artist |
Urbanus Leyniers
RKD
|
|---|---|
|
Daniël II Leyniers
RKD
|
|
|
Hendrik Reydams
|
|
|
Jan van Orley
RKD
Wikidata
|
|
|
Aurèle Augustin Coppens
|
|
| Title | The Glorification of Venus |
| Date | 1717 |
| Period | 18th century |
| Location | Brussels TGN |
| Collection | decorative arts (discipline) AAT |
| Object type | tapestries AAT |
| Inventory number | 1994-F-3 |
| Acquisition credit |
transfer
Stadhuis Ghent 1994 |
| Permalink | https://mskgent.be/collection/work/data/1994-F-3 |
| IIIF Manifest | https://imagehub.mskgent.be/iiif/3/3958/manifest.json |
| Art & Architecture Thesaurus | 300417629 mythologies (religious concept) AAT |
|---|---|
| Keywords Iconclass |
25F27(DOLPHIN)
swimming mammals: dolphin
Iconclass
25G3 trees Iconclass 25H217 river bank Iconclass 25H2322 sea Iconclass 26A clouds Iconclass 42D39 adultery Iconclass 9 Classical Mythology and Ancient History Iconclass 92 gods ~ classical mythology Iconclass 92B1 (story of) Jupiter (Zeus) Iconclass 92B3 (story of) Apollo (Phoebus) Iconclass 92B4 (story of) Mars (Ares) Iconclass 92C the great goddesses of Heaven, and their train Iconclass 92C4 (story of) Venus (Aphrodite) Iconclass 92C41 early life, prime youth of Venus Iconclass 92C411 birth of Venus; Venus Anadyomene: after Uranus' castration Venus rises from the sea wringing the water from her hair; usually she is awaited by the Hours Iconclass 92C4111 Venus, standing on a shell, sails with her veil over the water (alternatively she is riding on a dolphin): Venus Marina Iconclass 92D1916 cupids: 'amores', 'amoretti', 'putti' Iconclass 92H1 (story of) Neptune (Poseidon) Iconclass 92H2 (story of) Amphitrite Iconclass 92L3 nymphs (in general); 'Ninfe in commune' (Ripa) Iconclass 92L4 satyrs, fauns, Sileni Iconclass 94L (story of) Hercules (Heracles) Iconclass |
| School / Style | Rococo AAT |
| 'Tapijtwerkers en tapijtwerk te Gent', in: Duizend jaar kunst en cultuur / Erik Duverger. - Gent : [s.n.] : [s.a.] (dl. III, p. 550-557) |
| 'De triomf van Mars, een Brussels wandtapijt in de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst / Ingrid De Meûter. - Brussel : [s.n.] : [s.a.] (p. 123-137) |
| 200 jaar verzamelen : Collectieboek Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent / Arnout Balis, Robert Hoozee, Maximiliaan P.J. Martens, Paul Van Haute. - Gent : Ludion, 2000 (p. 110 (ill. 53), 270) |
| Het Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent : een keuze uit de mooiste werken / Patrick De Rynck. - Gent : Ludion, 2007 (p. 54-55) |
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