[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 9 _ft._ 8 _in._
W. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
THE PRIEST AND CARDENIO MEET DOROTHY: _The priest and the barber while
looking for Don Quixote come across Cardenio. While Cardenio is telling
them the sad story of how his love, Lucinda, has been stolen from him by
the treachery of Don Fernando they hear someone lamenting. Following the
sound of the voice, they find Dorothy disguised as a shepherd-boy bathing
her feet in a stream. She is on her way to seek Don Fernando, who is her
pledged husband and who has deserted her for Lucinda. In the background
Don Quixote, exhausted and starved from his wanderings, lies on the
ground, while the faithful Sancho pleads with him to return to Toboso._
_The border simulates a carved frame. On the lower selvage is the
signature M. R. DAUBUSSON. MAGE. PICON._
The piece is one of a series of illustrations by Coypel, originally
designed for the Gobelins, and was engraved and used in many editions of
the romance both in France and Spain. Several looms made tapestries after
the engravings, including those of Santa Barbara in Madrid.
The signature is the mark of the royal manufacture of Aubusson, and of
Mage, a tapestry merchant in Paris in 1746, and Picon, dyer to the king
from 1748 to 1756. The piece was evidently made in the royal works of
Aubusson to the order of the dealer Mage under the supervision of Picon,
who, from his position, was evidently one of the most important members of
the staff there.
[Illustration:
_Verdure with Dancing Nymphs_ No. 51
]
[Illustration:
_The Conquest of Louis The Great_ No. 52
]
The piece shows Aubusson work at its richest and finest. The foliage of
the trees with every leaf shown and broken up into small spots of changing
color is very typical of Aubusson, and quite different from the manner of
the Flemish shops (cf. No. 55). The colors are remarkably fine.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
Charles Antoine Coypel (1694-1752) entered the Academy in 1715, and
the next year made a series of twenty-eight designs illustrating
_Don Quixote_ for the Gobelins. A second important series which he
designed for the Gobelins illustrated scenes from the theatre. He
was a favorite painter of Queen Marie Leczinska. He wrote several
comic dramas and had an interest in an understanding of the theatre
which is reflected in his tapestry designs, which are conceived
always as a theatrical scene in a stage setting, with actors making
the proper expressive gestures.
[Sidenote: 63]