Hunting the Hare

One of set of four tapestries, with landscape scenes and figures inspired from the Hunts of Maximilian, now in the Louvre and woven after the cartoons of Bernard Van Orley, also preserved in the Louvre. Woven at sides with bases sustaining figures of putti and decorated with rams' heads. Embellishment of festoons, pendant bunches of fruits and flowers. Top border with scrolled, oblong cartouche in center, which contains a miniature landscape scene, supported by winged cherubs. Similar cartouche, with swags of fruit and flowers in bottom border. Hunting the Hare In immediate foreground a bearded huntsman, wearing a crimson cap, a blue doublet with half armor and short trunks, holds a spaniel in leash. He runs towards left where two hounds pursue the hare up a hill. In middle distance another huntsman, with spear, holds off two other hares.; warp undyed wool, 8-8½ ends per cm., weft dyed wool and silk, 24-36 ends per cm.