The ''Hunts of Maximilian'' or ''Les Chasses de Maximilien'', also ''Les Belles chasses de Guise'' (''The Beautiful Hunts of Guise'') are a set of twelve

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 ...

, one per month, depicting hunting scenes in the

Sonian Forest The Sonian Forest or Sonian Wood (, ; , ) is a forest at the south-eastern edge of Brussels, Belgium. It is connected to the Bois de la Cambre, Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos, an urban public park which enters the city up to from the Pentag ...

, south of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, by the court of

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death in 1519. He was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed hi ...

(d. 1519). They were produced in a Brussels workshop, and several tapestries are given identifiable locations that were then around the outskirts of the city, but are now mostly engulfed by it. The set is now in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. The original set, completed in the 1530s, were commissioned by a member of the

Habsburg family The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

: either

Charles V Charles V may refer to: Kings and Emperors * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise Others * Charles V, Duke ...

(Maximilian's grandson), or his aunt Margaret of Austria (Maximilian's daughter), or Charles's sister

Mary of Hungary Mary, also known as Maria of Anjou (, , ; 137117 May 1395), queen regnant, reigned as Queen of Hungary and List of dukes and kings of Croatia, Croatia between 1382 and 1385, and from 1386 until her death. She was the daughter of Louis I of Hun ...

. Both princesses governed the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

in Charles' name, Mary taking over after Margaret's death in 1530. A contract of 1533 probably refers to these tapestries. Barend van Orley - Sharing Out the Game - Google Art Project

Barend van Orley - Sharing Out the Game - Google Art Project

They were almost certainly designed by

Bernard van Orley Bernard van Orley (between 1487 and 1491 – 6 January 1541), also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who w ...

, the leading tapestry designer of the day, perhaps between 1528 and 1533.

Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen, also known as Juan del Mayo (c. 1503 – 1559) was a Dutch painter, printmaker and tapestry designer. He is known for his portraits, history scenes and genre subjects.Jan and Willem Dermoyen are credited as leading the weaving. Each tapestry has a roundel at centre top containing the

astrological symbol Historically, astrological and astronomical symbols have overlapped. Frequently used symbols include signs of the zodiac and classical planets. These originate from medieval Byzantine codices. Their current form is a product of the European Rena ...

for the month. They probably contain portraits of individuals from Maximilian's court; attempts have been made to identify these. Some pen and ink drawings by van Orley are in the Louvre, and the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

in Washington has a drawing for "August". The borders may have been designed by a different artist; they do not feature in any surviving van Orley drawings. Sets of hunting scenes had long been a popular subject in tapestry, with sets like the

Devonshire Hunting Tapestries The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries are a group of four medieval tapestries, probably woven in Arras, Artois, France, between about 1430 and 1450. The tapestries are known as ''Boar and Bear Hunt, Falconry, Swan and Otter Hunt,'' and ''Deer Hunt''. ...

(1430–1450, V&A), perhaps the largest set of 15th-century survivals, showing the hunting of bears, boars, deer, swans, otters, and falconry. There are large numbers of human figures and animals arranged fairly evenly across the whole image space, and only a rudimentary landscape setting. Very fashionably dressed ladies and gentlemen stroll around beside the slaughter. But the ''Hunts of Maximilian'' are very different, with an advanced Renaissance compositional style adapted to tapestries, and a remarkably forward-looking group of expansive landscapes behind the figures. The Louvre's set were in the collection of the

Dukes of Guise Count of Guise and Duke of Guise ( , ) were titles in the French nobility. Originally a Fiefdom, seigneurie, in 1417 Guise was erected into a county for René I of Naples, René, a younger son of Louis II of Anjou. While disputed by the House of ...

by 1589, remaining until 1654. After being owned by

Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Lou ...

, they entered the French royal collection of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

in 1665. They are now in the

Louvre museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, and considered one of the masterpieces of the art of

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, 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 piece ...

Copies

Well over a century after the originals, copies of the original set were made at the Gobelins factory in Paris, initially for

of France, who commissioned two sets at different times. There are Gobelins copies in the Musée national du Château de Pau (1680s), the

Musée Condé The – in English, the Condé Museum – is a French museum located inside the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise, 40 km north of Paris. In 1897, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of Louis Philippe I, bequeathed the château and ...

Chantilly Chantilly may refer to: Places France *Chantilly, Oise, a city ** US Chantilly, a football club *Château de Chantilly United States * Chantilly, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Chantilly (Charlotte neighborhood), North Carolina ...

(19th century), and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

(1690s).Metropolitan Museum page
/ref> Though the Metropolitan pieces are the same as the originals, the Pau and Chantilly sets have different borders, and the astrological symbols are replaced by coats of arms. Various copies were made in Brussels in the late 17th century, signed by Evraert Leyniers. Six are in Château of Franc-Waret in Belgium (1665–1676), and three in the

Musée de Brou The Municipal Museum of Bourg-en-Bresse, sometimes known as the Brou museum, Musée du Monastère Royal de Brou or Beaux-Arts Museum is an art museum located inside the Monastery of Brou in France. The collections include painting, particularly F ...

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ancient Provinces of France, province of Bresse (). I ...

. A set of six was until 1950 in the

Château de Keriolet A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking reg ...

Finistère Finistère (, ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest, France, Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.Cultural depictions of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian was an ambitious leader who was active in many fields and lived in a time of great upheaval between ...

Notes

References

*Wyld, Helen,
"Hunts of Maximilian"
2011,

Upton House, Warwickshire Upton House is a country house in the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Ratley and Upton, in the English county of Warwickshire, about northwest of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It is in the care of the National Trust. The house is Listed buil ...

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

{{Authority control Objets d'art in the Louvre 16th-century works Tapestries Horses in art Hunting in art Belgian art Spanish Netherlands Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor