Château of Monceaux / Month of December

Object Details

Title:

Château of Monceaux / Month of December

Artist/Maker:

Design conceived by Charles Le Brun , about 1665- by 1668 (French, 1619 - 1690)
Cartoon for the horizontal-warp loom painted collaboratively by Joseph Yvart , (French, 1649 - 1728)
Abraham Genoels , (Flemish, about 1640 - 1723)
Adriaen-Frans Boudewyns (called Baudoin) , (Flemish, 1644 - 1711)
François Bonnemer , (French, 1637 - 1689)
Jean-Baptiste Martin (called Martin des Batailles) (French, 1659 - 1735)
and Various makers , about 1668
Royal Factory of Furniture to the Crown at the Gobelins Manufactory , (French, founded 1662 - present)
in the horizontal-loom workshop of Jean de la Croix (French, died 1714)

Culture:

French

Place:

Gobelins, France, Europe (Place created)

Date:

before 1712

Medium:

Wool and silk

Object Number:

85.DD.309

Dimensions:

317.5 × 330.8 cm (125 × 130 1/4 in.)

See more

See less

This is one of a series of twelve tapestries, each of which shows an astrological sign for a month with a French royal palace in the background. The month of December shows the Château of Monceaux (demolished in 1799, during the French Revolution) through the bare trees. On the left, Louis XIV leads a hunting party with horsemen and hounds after a wild boar. In the center of the top border, the astrological sign of Capricorn hangs between garlands of winter fruit and vegetables. In the foreground, two liveried pages drape a rare Near Eastern carpet over the balustrade, while a moorhen, crane, and bustard—birds from the royal menagerie—strut along the front.

Provenance
- 1893

Abraham-Behor de Camondo, comte, 1829-1889 (Paris, France) [sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 1-3, 1893, lot 291.]

-

or his son, Isaac de Camondo, comte, 1851 - 1911 (Paris, France) [sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 1-3, 1893, lot 291.]

by 1903 - 1936

Gaston Menier (Paris, France) [sold after his death, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, November 24, 1936, lot 111.]

-

Baron Gendebien-Salvay (Belgium)

- 1985

Vincent Laloux (Brussels, Belgium), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1985.

Exhibitions
Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV (December 15, 2015 to May 1, 2016)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), December 15, 2015 to May 1, 2016
Bibliography

Guiffrey, Jules. Histoire de la tapisserie depuis le Moyen Âge jusqu'à nos jours (Tours: Alfred Mame, 1886), p. 361, ill.

"Revue des Ventes." Le Journal des arts (February 4, 1893), pp. 3-4.

Dubois, Pierre. "Ventes Prochaines-Tableaux, objets d'art et ameublement." Le Journal des arts (January 28, 1893), p. 2.

Fenaille, Maurice. Etat général des tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins (Paris: Imprimerie nationale: Hachette, 1903), vol. 2, pp. 161-62.

Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries. 2 vols. (London: George Braziller, Inc., 1974), vol. 2, p. 206, detail ill. fig. 713.

"Principales acquisitions des musées en 1985." La chronique des arts: Supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 107, no. 1406 (March 1986), p. 29, no. 180, ill.

"Acquisitions/1985." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 14 (1986), pp. 242-43, no. 192.

Jackson-Stops, Gervase. "Boulle by the Beach: Decorative Arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum." Country Life 179, no. 4624 (April 3, 1986), pp. 854-56, fig. 3.

Bremer-David, Charissa. "Tapestry 'Le Château de Monceaux' from the series Les Maisons Royales." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 14 (1986), pp. 105-12, figs. 1a-b.

Boccara, Jacqueline. Ames de Laine et de Soie (Saint-Just-en-Chausée: Editions d'art Monelle Hayot, 1988), pp. 207, 209, ill.

Wilson, Gillian. "Della Raccolta del Museo Paul Getty, une Selezione di pezzi acquisiti dal 1979." Casa Vogue Antiques 6 (November 1989), pp. 110-15.

Standen, Edith A. "The Jardin des Plantes: An Entrefenêtre for the Maisons Royales Gobelins Tapestry Series." Bulletin du Centre internationale d'études des textiles anciennes 68 (1990), pp. 49, 51, ill.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 3rd ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1991), pp. 162-63.

Bremer-David, Charissa, et al. Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1993), p. 170, no. 289.

Standen, Edith A. "The Garden of the Sun King: A Gobelins Tapestry in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts." Arts in Virginia 30 (Fall/Winter 1992-93), p. 8.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 4th ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), p. 194.

Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Decorative Arts (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), pp. 62-63, no. 46.

Bremer-David, Charissa. French Tapestries and Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997), pp. 20-27, no. 3.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 6th ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001), p. 194.

Wilson, Gillian, and Catherine Hess. Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001), pp. 149-50, no. 299.

Jolly, Anna. Seidengewebe des 18. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 2, Naturalismus (Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2002), p. 25n98, fig. 7.

Leben, Ulrich. Object Design in the Age of Enlightenment: The History of the Royal Free Drawing School in Paris (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004), p. 15, ill.

Wilson, Gillian, et al. French Furniture and Gilt Bronzes: Baroque and Régence: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008), pp. 374-75, app. no. 23, ill.

Bremer-David, Charissa. Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV, exh. cat. (Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2015), pp. 115-21, no. 11c, ill.

Related Media
  • /
    Audio: Tapestry