Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Tapestry: Thetis and Achilles Before the Oracle (from the series THE STORY OF ACHILLES)

Tapestry: Thetis and Achilles Before the Oracle
(from the series THE STORY OF ACHILLES)

(Flemish, 17th Century)
Probably third quarter of the 17th century
Object PlaceBrussels, Flanders
Medium/TechniqueTapestry weave (wool warp; wool, silk and gilt(?) silver wefts)
Dimensions413 x 465 cm (162 5/8 x 183 1/16 in.)
Credit LineBequest of Mrs. Harriet J. Bradbury
Accession number30.484
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsTextiles
InscriptionsThe Brussels mark appears woven into the lower center right outer guard. An additional weaver mark appears in the lower left corner of the tapestry - G.V.D.S.
ProvenanceSaid to have come from "a royal house" [see note 1]. About 1884/1889, purchased in Munich by Charles Mather Ffoulke (b. 1841 - d. 1909), Washington, DC; 1909, consigned for sale from the Ffoulke collection to French and Company, New York [see note 2]; by 1913, sold by French and Co. to George Robert White (b. 1847 - d. 1922), Boston; by inheritance from White to his sister, Harriet J. White (Mrs. Frederick T.) Bradbury (b. 1851 - d. 1930), Boston; 1930, bequest of Harriet J. Bradbury to the MFA. (Accession Date: July 3, 1930)

NOTES: [1] Early provenance taken from unpublished letters of Charles Mather Ffoulke. [2] Ffoulke acquired most of his extensive tapestry collection in Europe between 1884 and 1889. He lent the Achilles tapestries (MFA accession nos. 30.483-484) to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1896 (A Collection of Tapestries Lent by Charles M. Ffoulke, cat. nos. 31-32) and they were sold by French and Co. after his death. They were on loan to the MFA by 1913; see The Ffoulke Collection of Tapestries (New York, 1913), pp. 128-131.