French or Flemish
Late 17t h /Early 18t h Century
Wool and silk on a plain-weave linen support, on a stretcher
64 1⁄4” x 40”

A standing gentleman, holding a large unfolded plan of an architectural motif, turns to the viewer’s
right and looks up, as if to survey the construction of his design. He is dressed in a short crimson
coat with gold trim, pale blue hose, and tall leather boots. Behind him a heavy drapery opens onto
an interior recess where a faithful hound sits alert before a tapestry-covered table.

The refinement of the weaving, the broad modeling of the drapery, and the carefully balanced
color contrasts are characteristic of tapestry production in northern France and Flanders around
1700. The figure’s elegant pose, with one leg advanced, derives from Baroque models of the late
seventeenth century.

The fragment’s preservation of both the human figure and the secondary vignette with the dog
makes it an unusually complete survivor of a larger allegorical design, with colors remarkably
fresh in the crimson drapery and azure hose.

Possibly made in Beauvais or Brussels.