THE ANIMAL TAMERSA LOUIS XIV ‘GROTESQUE CHINOIS’ TAPESTRY

The Animal Tamers was one of the rarer woven subjects of the Beauvais Grotesques series. The scene in the left foreground, with a pair of leopards attacking a bull, constituted one of those optional lateral elements that were often omitted, despite its clear reference to 16th and early 17th century tapestries, that often celebrated the subject of animal combat. To collectors of Renaissance art and Baroque bronze statuettes, Monnoyer's choice and pose of these animals must have appeared particularly erudite, replicating not the more widely-known group of a lion attacking a bull, but a much rarer group by the Italian-Flemish sculptor, Giovanni Bologna (1529-1608), modelled with a leopard attacking a bull. How Monnoyer came to copy the stance of this model remains a mystery as only two examples of the statuette are now known. A tapestry with identical composition though differing borders, acquired in the early 19th century by Richard, 2nd Earl of Bantry, was sold at Christie's London, 22 November 1956, lot 139 (as part of a set divided across lots 137-142). Another tapestry with this subject was sold more recently at Christie's Paris, 21 June 2006, lot 252 (€180,000).