The Deposition, c. 1520

Not on View

Medium

tapestry: undyed wool warp; spun silver, silver-gilt, and dyed silk and wool weft

Dimensions

overall: 225 x 228.5 cm (88 9/16 x 89 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.449

Artists / Makers

Anonymous Artist (weaver)

Bernard van Orley (artist after) Netherlandish, c. 1488 - 1541

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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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

Widener, Joseph E.

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.

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.