The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries are a group of four medieval
tapestries
Tapestry is a form of textile art which was traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to han ...
, probably woven in
Arras
Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...
,
Artois
Artois ( , ; ; Picard: ''Artoé;'' English adjective: ''Artesian'') is a region of northern France. Its territory covers an area of about 4,000 km2 and it has a population of about one million. Its principal cities include Arras (Dutch: ...
, France, between about 1430 and 1450.
The tapestries are known as ''Boar and Bear Hunt, Falconry, Swan and Otter Hunt,'' and ''Deer Hunt''.
These enormous works, each over 13 feet tall and altogether about 133 feet wide, depict men and women in
fashionable dress of the early fifteenth century hunting in forests.
[Wyld, Helen (2015). "Bess of Hardwick's Tapestries," in ''Hardwick Hall.'' Adshead, David, and David A. H. B. Taylor, eds. New Haven: Yale University Press, 53-54.] The tapestries formerly belonged to the
Dukes of Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire is a title in the Peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This (now the senior) branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the wealthiest British aristocratic families since the 16th century and has b ...
, and were hung on the walls at
Hardwick Hall
Hardwick Hall is an architecturally significant Elizabethan architecture, Elizabethan-era country house in Derbyshire, England. A leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, the Renaissance architecture, Renaissance style home was bu ...
in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
.
In 1957, they became the property of the British Government in the tax settlement after the death of the
10th Duke of Devonshire.
The tapestries were then allocated to the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
in London, where they remain.
Few fifteenth-century tapestries of this size and grandeur still exist, which is what makes the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries so exceedingly rare.
History
Tapestries
Tapestry is a form of textile art which was traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to han ...
were a popular luxury good that used visual imagery to entertain and delight the audiences of aristocratic households.
The wealthy used tapestries to cover entire walls, which had a practical use because they aided in insulation during colder months.
The sport of hunting was a common subject in tapestries as well as a favored activity amongst the elite members of society.
Hunting was both a stylized sport and an important source of meat highly prized by the nobility.
The sport also reinforced aristocratic ideas of class, since the elite form of hunting was only available for the landowner.
Hunting was so prized by the nobility that there were
forest laws
A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...
, to protect the landowners's rights against
poaching
Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...
.
Any rule-breaking poachers faced expensive fines or worse.
In particular, deer and boar were protected by forest law in England, and in Portugal, bears were protected.
Royal hunts were not an everyday occurrence and were more of a performance.
Though hunting was primarily reserved for members of the court, they were often not the ones engaging in the act of locating, chasing, and capturing the animals.
The nobility often had huntsmen who would routinely hunt and bring back meat for the royals to enjoy, but who also located and corralled live animals for the royals to then hunt.
The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries show various animal hunts, but the nobles who take place in them are in their finest dress, which they might not in reality have worn for such an activity.
The four hunting tapestries are therefore not the most accurate representation of hunting, but instead depict the fantasy of a noble, leisurely pastime enjoyed by the wealthy.
The tapestries reinforce the hierarchy of class and humankind’s dominance over animals.
Production
The tapestries would have been produced by a large workshop of skilled weavers, working to designs made by an artist. Neither the designer nor the workshop can be identified, as is common at this period.
Though considered as a set, the four tapestries were created at different times.
The specific style of dress in each tapestry can help to identify the time it was made.
The ''Boar and Bear Hunt'' shows costume c. 1425-30.
Both ''Falconry'' and the ''Swan and Otter Hunt'' show costume c. 1430s.
The ''Deer Hunt'' primarily shows costume c. 1440-1450, but with two costumes c. 1435, indicating that the piece was likely made in the 1440s.
Furthermore, the tapestries all vary in size.
The ''Devonshire Hunting Tapestries'' were created on two types of
looms:
high-warp loom and
low-warp loom.
Weavers use an illustration, known as a cartoon, as the design reference for the tapestry.
For low-warp loom, the cartoon was below the threads, allowing the weaver to easily look at it.
For high-warp loom, the cartoon was displayed away from the loom, requiring weavers to be familiar with the work to not constantly be looking away from the tapestry to the cartoon.
Low-warp loom can create errors since the weaver has to work in reverse.
Such is the case with the ''Boar and Bear Hunt'', considered low-warp, which has errors of reversed inscriptions and two left-handed men, probably unintended.
''Falconry'' and ''Otter and Swan'' are considered high-warp.
Description
''Boar and Bear Hunt''
The ''Boar and Bear Hunt'' is 13 ft 3.5 in by 33 ft 6 in.
On the left side, the boar hunts take place and in the centre and the right side, the bear hunts take place.
The men are shown carrying spears, which have cross-bars designed to stop the charge of the boar and keep its
tusk
Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine tooth, canine teeth, as with Narwhal, narwhals, chevrotains, musk deer, water deer, muntjac, pigs, ...
s at a safe distance.
The bears are also hunted on foot with spears.
[Cummins, John (1988). "The Bear". ''The Hound and the Hawk: The Art of Medieval Hunting''. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 120–131. .] The lady crossing the stream in the centre foreground has "Monte le Desire" inscribed on her flowing sleeve.
However, weaving on a low-warp loom has reversed the letters.
The boar was viewed as the exact opposite of the deer in the Middle Ages, with the boar considered more beastly.
Boars were known to attack hunting dogs.
Though boar hunting was not as highly regarded as deer hunting, the meat was still desired for banquets and celebrations.
Bear hunting was not for meat, but rather to prevent attacks on farm animals,
and for fur. Hunters and their hounds might seek out the bear in its cave, as can be seen on the right side of the tapestry where a bear and its cubs reside in a cave.
However by this period, bears were rare in Flanders, and extinct in Britain.
''Falconry''
''Falconry'' is the tallest tapestry at 14 ft 6 in by 35 ft 3.5 in, and is missing a section on the left.
Intended to be read from left to right, the scene shows the sport of falconry and it is the only tapestry of the four that follows on one hunt throughout the piece.
On the left, nobles ride horses with hawks perched on arms as they approach a mill.
The horses’ trappings have “M” repeated on them, though it is unknown if this was intended to identify the tapestry’s commissioner.
Great attention is given to the etiquette of falconry including the loosing, the flushing out, and the recall.
Towards the centre of the tapestry, the nobles take to foot and the falcons are set upon ducks in a stream.
This is the loosing, when the falcons are freed from their trappings, such as leashes and hoods, and set upon the prey.
The dogs in the tapestry partake in the flushing out of the prey.
On the right, the hawks are being recalled.
A man towards the top of the composition holds a v-shaped lure in the air to call back the hawk.
In the bottom right, another man bends to grab his lure, with a successfully caught duck in his other hand.
''Swan and Otter Hunt''
The ''Swan and Otter Hunt'' is the widest tapestry at 13 ft 11 in by 36 ft 7.5 in.
The landscape includes both land, in the foreground and middle ground, and sea, in the background.
On the left, two
otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...
s are hunted: one is pinned to the ground towards the bottom and one is hoisted into the air towards the top.
Towards the centre of the composition, next to a small-scale castle that represents a port, young boys plunder a swan’s nest.
Directly above, another pair of boys climb a tree to attack a
heron
Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...
’s nest.
There is another hunt on the right side of the tapestry involving bears and hunters riding on a camel.
These hunters have been identified by the V&A as
Saracens
file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens
''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...
and the camel is thought to be a fictional addition.
In the Middle Ages, otters were an annoyance to fishermen and thus exterminated through hunting.
Nobles did not necessarily partake in otter hunts nor consume otter meat, but did like to adorn themselves with the furs.
Swan meat was consumed by the nobility, especially the meat of young swans, or cygnets.
Swans were so highly coveted by royalty that they had special farms to hold swans called
swanneries.
''Deer Hunt''
The ''Deer Hunt'' is the smallest of the four tapestries at 13 ft 4.5 in by 28 ft 5.5 in.
Woolley points out that the finished tapestry is the result of several reworkings and additions.
The reweaving has diminished the quality of the tapestry.
On the left side of the tapestry, a deer is actively being hunted by men and hounds.
To the right of that deer in the centre, a recently slain deer lies on its back, with its stomach cut open.
The hounds are feasting on the deer as their reward, a hunting ritual called the curée, or cure.
A small mill next to a stream divides the tapestry, and on the right there are several figures engaged in the sport of hawking.
Also in the centre of the work, next to the cure, is a man of the court flirtatiously wrapped around the wife of the miller.
In addition to hunting and hawking, members of the court are socializing in their finest dress, adding to the idealized nature of the scene.
The deer pictured are specifically
red deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...
, which was one of three deer species in medieval England alongside
fallow deer
Fallow deer is the common name for species of deer in the genus ''Dama'' of subfamily Cervinae. There are two living species, the European fallow deer (''Dama dama''), native to Europe and Anatolia, and the Persian fallow deer (''Dama mesopotamic ...
and
roe deer.
At the time the tapestry was created, deer-hunting was restricted to a very few in England.
Provenance
The history of ownership of the tapestries from their creation to the mid-sixteenth century is not known.
The Countess of Shrewsbury,
Bess of Hardwick
Elizabeth Cavendish, later Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury ( Hardwick; 13 February 1608), known as Bess of Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, was a notable figure of Elizabethan English society. By a series of well-made marri ...
, is one of the earliest suggested owners of the set.
In the 1590s,
Hardwick Hall
Hardwick Hall is an architecturally significant Elizabethan architecture, Elizabethan-era country house in Derbyshire, England. A leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, the Renaissance architecture, Renaissance style home was bu ...
in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
was built and became the home for the extremely wealthy widow,
whose inheritance passed to the line of her
second husband, who eventually became the Cavendish
Dukes of Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire is a title in the Peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This (now the senior) branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the wealthiest British aristocratic families since the 16th century and has b ...
.
Linda Woolley suggests that Bess came to own the tapestries via her last husband
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, 6th Earl of Waterford, 12th Baron Talbot, KG, Earl Marshal
(c. 1522/1528 – 18 November 1590) was an English magnate and military commander. He also held the subsidiary titles of 15th Baron Strange o ...
, who had been married to the countess before he died in 1590.
A 1601 inventory identified a set of four tapestries with descriptions matching those of the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries.
According to the inventory, the tapestries had been cut into smaller pieces.
The Victoria & Albert Museum suggests that the four tapestries remained at Hardwick Hall over the following centuries.
William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire used the cut tapestries to insulate the
Long Gallery
In architecture, a long gallery is a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. In Britain, long galleries were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses. They were normally placed on the highest reception floor of English country house ...
at Hardwick Hall in the 1840s.
During a visit to Hardwick in 1899, Arthur Long convinced the
seventh Duke of Devonshire to let the Victoria & Albert Museum restore the tapestries.
The restoration began in 1900 and ended in 1910.
The tapestries were then brought to the main home of the Dukes of Devonshire,
Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family si ...
, and exhibited periodically.
In 1957, the
tenth Duke of Devonshire died and the tapestries passed to the V&A.
References
Further reading
* Digby, George Wingfield, and Wendy Hefford. ''The Tapestry Collection-- Medieval and Renaissance
f theVictoria & Albert Museum''. London: H.M.S.O, 1980.
* Dimitrova, Kate. “Class, Sex, and the Other: The Representation of Peasants in a Set of Late Medieval Tapestries.” ''Viator (Berkeley)'' 38, no. 2 (2007): 85–125. .
* Oggins, Robin S. ''The Kings and Their Hawks : Falconry in Medieval England / Robin S. Oggins.'' New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. .
External links
View the Tapestries"The sign of the dog: an examination of the Devonshire hunting tapestries" Ann Claxton, ''Journal of Medieval History'', Volume 14, Issue 2, 1988
{{tapestry
Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Tapestries
Animals in art
Dogs in art
Hunting in art
Pigs in art