The Deposition
c. 1520
Weaver

Artwork overview
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Medium
tapestry: undyed wool warp; spun silver, silver-gilt, and dyed silk and wool weft
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 225 x 228.5 cm (88 9/16 x 89 15/16 in.)
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Accession
1942.9.449
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Probably Jacopo Luis Francesco Pablo Rafael FitzJames-Stuart, 8th duke of Berwick and 15th duke (duque in Spanish) of Alba [1821-1881], Liria Palace, Madrid; (Alba sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7-20 April 1877, no. 1 under Italian tapestries, as Ferrarese 16th Century).[1] Baron d'Erlanger, Paris, by 1880.[2] Marsden Jasiel Perry [1850-1935], Providence, Rhode Island, by 1913;[3] sold to (French and Company, New York); inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, after purchase 1 November 1921 by funds of Joseph E. Widener;[4] gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] The owners were said to have bought in all but one tapestry at the sale, and hence even the NGA tapestry (for 15,000 francs); see Jules Guiffrey, Histoire de la tapisserie, depuis le Moyen Age jusqu'à nos jours, Tours, 1886: 492. However, an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the NGA Library indicates the tapestry was purchased by French and Company; see copy in NGA curatorial files.
[2] The tapestry was lent by him to the Exposition nationale belge in Brussels in 1880.
[3] Wilhelm R. Valentiner, "Tapestries from Designs by Bernaert von Orley," Art in America (January 1913): 57.
[4] Edith A. Standen, Widener curator, note in Widener collection cards in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1880
L'Exposition nationale belge, Ancien Champ des Manoeuvres, Brussels, 1880, no. 84.
1888
Exposition rétrospective d'art industriel, Musée royal armures et antiquités, Brussels, 1888, no. 3002 (catalogue by Canon Reusens).
2019
Bernard van Orley: Brussels and the Renaissance, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 2019, no. 20, repro.
Bibliography
1935
Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 122.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 34, color repro. 35.
1990
Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn. "Bernart van Orley, Peintre-Inventeur." Studies in the History of Art 24 (1990):plate 1, 43-49.
Wikidata ID
Q62268435