A Dodo in the Garden of Eden: Tapestries and Italian Influence at the Polish Court
The tapestries which adorn the rooms of Wawel Castle in Kraków are the remnant of a rich collection of textiles owned by the last two kings of the Jagiellonian Dynasty, and in particular the group of Flemish tapestries commissioned by King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland (r. 1548–1572). Over the centuries the collection has been referred to as the Jagiellonian arrases [1].
Two features of the collection stand out and mark them as an exquisite and exceptional assemblage of decorative textiles. Firstly, the tapestries are not a random collection brought together over the centuries, but were deliberately and purposely designed and commissioned, and are a set of stylistically consistent, thematic works of art. Secondly, Sigismund II Augustus curated and envisaged the tapestries as the principle decoration for selected, high status rooms in his residence [2].
Bona Sforza of Milan (1494–1557), Queen of Poland, wife of Sigismund I and mother of Sigismund II Augustus, was a major patron of the arts and a major influence on the collection. The tapestries include exotic animals from around the world, including perhaps the oldest extant depiction of a Dodo (Fig. 2). The first known account of these Flemish tapestries is from vivid contemporary descriptions in a panegyric in Latin authored by Stanisław Orzechowski, a Polish courtier and writer, and published within a month of their unveiling.
In 1553 Orzechowski was a witness to the nuptial celebrations of Sigismund II Augustus and Catherine of Austria (1533–1572), a widow of Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and grandson of Isabella d’Este. Orzechowski writes that on 30 July 1553, ‘after the feasts, games and tournaments’ ‘there was revealed an extraordinary magnificence of tapestries which, it appears, had never been seen in the palaces of other kings’ [3]. The wedding guests were shown the tapestries which had been hung in the Castle’s spacious and well-lit reception halls and rooms, located on the upper floors [4]. The tapestries are the focus of the panegyric, and Orzechowski declares he’ll report on the tapestries as if he were Cebes of Thebes, an Ancient Greek philosopher, an earnest seeker after virtue and truth, ‘so as to allow you to discover not only the work of an excellent artist, but also the generous spirit of the noble sovereign’ [5].
Fig. 1 Workshop of Jan de Kempeneer. Paradise Bliss from the History of the First Parents series, ca. 1550. Wool, silk and silver thread, 854 x 480cm. Krakow, Wawel Royal Castle – State Art Collection. Image: Muzea Małopolska, http://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/obiekty/-/a/4869610/4889945.
Orzechowski describes vivid figures, noting their richness ‘brocaded in gold’. He is enraptured by the painting-like realism of the people and animals in the tapestry; ‘There, as if they were alive’. On the first one, he writes, ‘stood Adam and Eve, our first parents as well as the ones responsible for our ills, painted by the weaving art’. This work depicts the story of Adam and Eve (Gen. 2.8–3.20) in one large tapestry, relating events from the Creation to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise (Fig. 1). The landscape of the Garden of Eden depicted in the tapestry is full of European and non-European animals and birds that, like the people, are life-like. Amongst these exotic creatures is a Dodo, a now extinct flightless bird (Fig. 2). Evidence of the Dodo’s existence comes from numerous artworks and seventeenth-century Dutch sailors’ accounts written before 1600. The bird was almost certainly extinct by 1700 [6]. The remarkably accurate depiction of the bird in a tapestry exhibited in 1553, makes this the oldest extant image of a Dodo, long recognised as such in the Polish historiography. It suggests that along with the other accurate source material the Flemish artists must have used to draw the animals in the tapestry, they also had access to images of the Dodo taken from life.
The composition of the tapestry is sophisticated, and is a semi-elliptical line arrangement of the key figures into five scenes on the tapestry, creating a sense of depth and perspective: higher on the left, the moment of Creation; lower towards the centre, God’s introduction of Eve to Adam; in the centre, God commands Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge and good and evil; further to the right, the action of the original sin; and finally, on the right toward the edge, the scene of expulsion from Paradise. The artist achieves the narrative of the Genesis story by gradation of the dimensions of the figures of God, Adam and Eve and the scenery. It creates the perspective with the scenes in the centre of the tapestry being of largest dimensions and smaller as they are further removed from the viewer along an elliptical line. Orzechowski calls the tapestry the Bliss of Our Ancestors [7]. He does not mention the Dodo.
Fig. 2 Detail of the Dodo from Paradise Bliss. Wool, silk and silver thread, 854 x 480cm. Krakow, Wawel Royal Castle – State Art Collection.
The ‘woven painting’, Bliss of Our Ancestors is located, according to Orzechowski, ‘at the head of the conjugal bed’ and presents Adam and Eve as ‘innocent’ and ‘not ashamed of their nakedness.’ He goes further and describes the effect of the imagery on the viewers, ‘the men smiled upon Eve, and the frivolous young girls, if they entered, upon Adam. For their uncovered sexual parts showed, in his case, virile strength, and in hers the charm of femininity.’ The same tapestry features the scene of Eve with the ‘fruit of the tree and the serpent’s incitement’ leading to ‘the serpent’s deceit and Eve’s greediness as well as Adam’s sin.’ Thematically, the tapestry’s narrative of the biblical story closes with ‘our miserable and hapless banishment.’ Orzechowski warns the reader that ‘it is at this point that fear might have seized you, had you seen the flight of Adam, Eve all a-tremble, and God the judge in his anger.’ Indeed ‘for in looking at this scene you, too, spectator, would have believed yourself damned, weighted with the yoke of a decree pronounced against you.’
The main collection of the Flemish tapestries, known from the Orzechowski’s account to be at Wawel in 1553, includes nineteen epic arrases thematically corresponding to the biblical stories designed at the king’s request by Michiel Coxie (de Coxien) (1499–1592). The Flemish painter drew his inspiration from the contemporary Roman art including works by Raphael, Perino del Vaga, Amico Aspertini and Baldassare Peruzzi [8]. The theme of the tapestries was most likely chosen by the king himself and features the key narrative of Genesis: ‘History of the first parents’, the ‘Story of Noah’ (Fig. 3), and the ‘History of construction of the Tower of Babel’. The tapestries were woven with wool, silk, silver and gold threads in the Brussels workshops of Pieter II van Aelst, Willem and Jan de Kempeneer, and Jan van Tieghem.
Fig. 3 Workshop of Pieter van Aelst the Younger, ca. 1550. God Conversing with Noah, from the Story of Noah series. Wool, silk, silver thread and gold thread, 467 x 525cm. Krakow, Wawel Royal Castle – State Art Collection. Image: Muzea Małopolska, http://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/obiekty/-/a/4869610/13718523.
In addition to the monumental arrases with the biblical themes, the collection includes forty-four verdure tapestries designed in Antwerp and featuring scenes from forests and woodlands, landscapes with animals as well as twelve tapestries arranged with heraldic themes representing the coats of arms of Poland and Lithuania and the royal cypher of Sigismund II Augustus, the letters ‘S.A.’ (Fig. 4). The decorative borders of the tapestries as well as the background of the tapestries bearing the royal coat of arms and cypher were designed by Cornelis Floris (1514-1575) and Cornelis Bos (1506/1510-1564).
The king’s parents’ example played a formative influence on Sigismund II Augustus’ personal interest in the arts and the development of his taste. Both his father Sigismund I (r. 1506–1548) and his mother Bona Sforza of Milan (1494–1557) were known for their patronage of the arts and the maintenance of the court which projected the splendour of the Jagiellon dynasty though refurbishment of the Wawel Castle into a splendid renaissance royal residence. The Wawel Castle was to be decorated by the 170 arrases ordered before 1550 by Sigismund II Augustus [9]. The majority of the one hundred and forty-two surviving arrases of this collection are on display in Wawel Castle in Kraków and today form one of the most extensive collections of tapestries in the world [10].
The role of the Sigismund II Augustus’s tapestries extends beyond their artistic value and the ornamentation of the royal residence. After the death of their owner, the arrases played a significant ceremonial role during state occasions such as royal funerals and coronations, including that of Henry of Valois (1551–1589) after his election as king of Poland in 1574. Almost a century later, Marie Louise Gonzaga (1611–1667), the second wife of Władysław IV of Poland, reported to Cardinal Mazarin that during the ceremonies marking her official entry into Poland she was surprised to see such tapestries that she has never seen at the French court.
Contemporary accounts describe the last ceremonial use of the tapestries in 1764 when they decorated the royal castle in Warsaw for the coronation of Stanisław II Augustus adding to the splendour of the occasion and bearing witness to the last Polish coronation. Stanisław II Augustus was in 1795 forced to abdicate and imprisoned in Russia when Poland was destroyed by the alliance of Russia, Prussia and Austria. The tapestries became a valuable and coveted prize. The collection was looted by the troops of Catherine the Great and for over a century the Flemish collection of arrases made for Sigismund II Augustus adorned imperial residences in Russia. Ironically, one of the tapestries pilfered by the Russians, named ‘The Moral Decline of Mankind’, returned to Poland as a ‘gift of the Soviet peoples’ in 1977. It is perhaps an oversimplification, but the history of the collection is as dramatic as the history of the country to which the collection now belongs.
Darius von Güttner, The University of Melbourne
Fig. 4 Workshop of Jan van Tieghem, ca. 1555. Tapestry with the Arms of Poland and Lithuania and the Figure of Victory. Wool, silk, silver thread and gold thread, 156 x 292.5cm. Krakow, Wawel Royal Castle – State Art Collection. Image: Muzea Małopolska, http://muzea.malopolska.pl/en/obiekty/-/a/4869610/13754586.
NOTES
[1] ^ In Poland the term ‘arras’ was used to refer to tapestries, after the town of Arras, in northern France which was renowned for their production. ‘Jagiellonian’ refers to the Jagiellonian Dynasty or the House Jagiełło; the descendants of Jagiełło (or Jogaila) (c. 1352/1362–1434) who was the Grand Duke of Lithuania (1377–1434). Jagiełło converted to Catholicism in 1386 in order to marry Queen Jadwiga of Poland and received the Christian name Władysław. Władysław co-reigned with Jadwiga with her until her death in 1399, and later, in his own right for thirty-five years. His descendants bear his name as their dynastic appellation. The dynasty reigned as Kings of Poland (1386–1572), Grand Dukes of Lithuania (1377–1392 and 1440–1572), Kings of Hungary (1440–1444 and 1490–1526), and Kings of Bohemia (1471–1526).
[2] ^ The tapestries provide a narrative of the Genesis stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah and the Tower of Babel. All of the tapestries are of the same height and have different widths to fit specific walls of the rooms of the Wawel Castle.
[3] ^ The Latin Panagyricus authored by Orzechowski was published within the month of the nuptials celebration. S. Orzechowski, Panagyricus nuptiarum Sigismundi Augusti Poloniae Regis: Priore correctior et longe locupletior. Addita est in fine Bonae Reginae luculenta laus (Cracoviae, 1553). See also the English translation of the Latin text provided in J. Szablowski, The Flemish tapestries at Wawel castle in Cracow. Treasures of King Sigismund Augustus Jagiello (Antwerp, 1972), 50–55. The latin text of the Panagyricus is published as an appendix to M. Fabiański, "Renaissance Nudes as 'materia exercendae virtutis'? A Contemporary Account of the Royal Tapestries in Cracow," Artibus et Historiae, 32 (2011): 243–276, here 269–270.
[4] ^ Stanisław Orzechowski studied at the University of Kraków and later at the universities of Vienna, Padua and Bologna. Marcin Fabiański gives a comprehensive outline of Stanisław Orzechowski’s background and education. M. Fabiański, "On King, Priest and Wanton Girls. Looking at Flemish Renaissance Tapestries in Kraków," Source. Notes in the History of Art, 29 (2010): 8–14; see also Fabiański, "Renaissance Nudes".
[5] ^ ‘[...] eas ad Cebetis instar demonstrabo, ut inde cum opus ipsum praeclari articis. Tum vero ingenium optimi regis pernoscatis’. Orzechowski, Panagyricus nuptiarum.
[6] ^ J. P. Hume, "The Dodo: from extinction to the fossil record," Geology Today, 28 (2012): 147-151; "The history of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and the penguin of Mauritius," Historical Biology, 18 (2006): 65-93.
[7] ^ Wawel Royal Castle, Kraków, Inventory Number 1.
[8] ^ T. P. Campbell, Tapestry in the Renaissance: art and magnificence (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press, 2002), 397–399.
[9] ^ M. Piwocka, "Arrasy króla Zygmunta Augusta. "The Art of Majesty" ostatniego Jagiellona," in Patronat artystyczny Jagiellonów , ed. M. Walczak and P. Węcowski (Kraków:Towarzystwo Naukowe "Societas Vistulana", 2015), 397–408. For the details of the collection see M. Hennel-Bernasikowa and M. Piwocka, Katalog arrasów króla Zygmunta Augusta (Kraków: Zamek Królewski na Wawelu, 2017).
[10] ^ J. Holc and A. Włochowicz, "The Arrases of Wawel: the Polish Royal Castle in Krakow," Fibres & Textiles in Eastern Europe, 54 (2005): 85–87. Recent scholarship suggests that the tapestries were commissioned probably as early as 1547 and arrived in Kraków in staged deliveries over the course of the ensuing decade. M. A. Janicki, "Imagines biblijne, alegoryczne, historyczne i heraldyczne zamawiane dla Zygmunta Augusta w świetle kilku zapisów rachunkowych z lat 1547–1548 (przyczynek do genezy królewskiej kolekcji arrasów)," in Amicissima: studia Magdalenae Piwocka oblata, ed. Grażyna Korpal (Kraków: Fundacja Nomina Rosae Ogród Kultury Dawnej, 2010), 139–151; R. Szmydki, "Arrasy Zygmunta Augusta w świetle antwerpskiej Certificatieboek z roku 1560," in Polska i Europa w dobie nowożytne, ed. T. Bernatowicz (Warszawa, 2009), 29–35. The transaction was financed through a loan arranged for the king by his bankers in Augsburg. R. Szmydki, "Kredytowe źródła finansowania tapiserii Zygmunta Augusta a ich wartość materialna w XVII wieku," Barok, 17 (2010): 13–29.
Jessica O’Leary