Beschreibung:

'Grotesques with an Elephant', A late Louis XIV Tapestry, from the series 'Les Grotesques', Manufacture Royale de Beauvais, under the directorship of Philippe Behagle (1684-1705), designed by Jean Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699) between 1688 and 1732 woven with a raised platform boxed in by trellis and flowering foliage, with two sets of steps leading up to the chequered floor, with a central foreground elephant and rider, and bronze urn containing a small tree, flanked by a dancing female and male pipe player to one side, and standing female figure and dancing flute player to the other, with a leopard lying to one side with a fallen bough of vine, the platform supporting spaced plinths on turned feet supporting delicate columns embellished with foliate swags and tassels and centred by profile sculptures of sphinxes and tall vases of flowers, the central structure is hung with elaborate swags of red drapery, the columns supporting cornices which in turn support small vases with flowers, one with a parrot, and two fruiting vine clad trellis structures which arch across to join the three delicate architectural structures, each trellis suspending a hanging of canopies, swags, foliage, ribbon and feathers emanating from vases, a similarly delicate structure is placed above the central colonnade, flanked by pendant trophies with crossed quivers and a floral band, all suspended from a horizontal marbled shelf, above which a further delicate band of decoration extends across the width of the tapestry woven with stepped architectural shelves with ribbons, canopies, swags and birds, and a fan shaped motif in each corner, all on a tabac d'Espagne coloured ground, within a four-sided red and gold frame pattern border, woven with alternating acanthus and foliate motif and small golden spheres, with an outer narrow yellow border, the blue selvedge marked BEAUVAIS; (the elephant and central lower section, later reweaving) approximately: 303cm. high, 391cm. wide; 9ft. 11in., 12ft. 10in.