Pieter Coecke van Aelst (Aelst 1502-1550 Brussels)

These two cartoon fragments are preparatory for figures in a series of nine tapestries depicting the life of St. Paul. The head of a man with curly hair appears in reverse in The Sacrifice at Lystra, and the man wearing a hat is in The Burning of the Books at Ephesus. Other cartoon fragments are in the British Museum, as is a full-size cartoon for the tapestry of The Beheading of Saint Paul. The complete set of nine tapestries is in Munich at the Residenzmuseum and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, and parts of the series can be found in other museum collections (see G. Marlier, La renaissance flamande, Pierre Coeck d'Alost, Brussels, 1966, pp. 310-22 and figs. 256-59).