UNKNOWN WEAVER, French
(active 1510s)

The Triumph of Eternity (Chateau de Chaumont, set 1)

1512-1515
Silk and wool; tapestry weave, 319 x 377 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

The Chateau de Chaumont Set is a series of silk and wool tapestries, held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, produced in Lyon, France. The scenes depicted on the tapestries combine poetry with allegories, exploring the transience of life, the joys of youth, and the inevitability of death. These Renaissance-era works are significant for their detailed depictions of costumes and their combination of poetic text with visual storytelling. They hung in the Château de Chaumont in the Loire Valley until the 20th century.

The Triumph of Eternity is represented by the Coronation of the Virgin. Dressed in crimson velvet with an opulent brocaded velvet shawl, the Virgin is seated in the centre as two angels hold a crown over her head. Five musical angels surround her playing an organ, recorder, straight cornetto, harp, and lute, while another sings from an open music book.

The scenes in the set display a conservative style in which the figures are placed in shallow landscapes, thereby ignoring pictorial innovations for depicting space and mass.

The verse in Old French at the top states: Nothing triumphing by due authority Remains permanent and durable. Nothing is permanent under the heavens, But above, eternity triumphs.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.