{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O353912"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O353912/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KB0486/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KB0486/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KB0486","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0484","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0485","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0487","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0490","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0492","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0495","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0496","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB0497","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O353912/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O353912","accessionNumber":"T.405-1910","objectType":"Tapestry","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Tapestries with boys at play, or winged cupids, amidst a pergola of vines trained on trees, known as <i>Giochi di Putti</i>, were first woven for Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, after designs by Giulio Romano, in workshops of Ferrara (or possibly Mantua). A lot has been written about the meaning of the tapestries with the <i>Puttini</i> subject. Forti Grazzini, for example, has interpreted the iconography of these sets as a manifestation of the Mantuan 'golden era' - a period of peace and prosperity owed to the Gonzaga family which has started with the duke Federico II and continued throughout the reigns of Ercole and Ferrante.\nSix drawings exist to establish the identity of the artist responsible for these delightful fantasies. A set of four tapestries, with two additional entre-fenêtres, with Cardinal Gonzaga's arms, are in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, and another two pieces (same subject, also with Gonzaga arms) are in the Vatican. The tapestries are woven with gold and silver and are without borders.\nThis piece - like a tapestry at Compton Wynyates (country house in Warwickshire) and a fragment in Milan - would appear to come from another Italian set based on the same models (it is woven without silver and silver-gilt threads). It has been furnished with Flemish borders and carefully repaired, but it very likely lost little or nothing of its original size and shape. \nA central pair of apple trees entwined with a vine forming a pergola above. A boy (or winged cupid) on the central stem above is picking grapes, with another reclined above (left) munching from a bunch. A trellised fence runs behind the central trees with two disposed to the left and one to the right. A lake or estuary with ships is seen between the fence and overhanging branches and vines. On the right two cupids are playing with a stag recumbent, on which one sits. To the left three cupids are playing, one swarms up a tree, and two appear above the fence looking on , one on the shoulders of the other. All the boys are winged. \nThe border is composed of large flowers, fruit and grapes, rising from a vase with mask above at the sides, and cornucopiae at the ends of the horizontal sections above and below. The borders have been woven onto this tapestry, probably in the 19th century.\nThe drawing (Museum no. E.4586-1910), which together with the tapestry belonged to George Salting, shows the design for the tapestry and several (but not all) details exactly: namely, the putti with stag, the two seen pick-a-back behind the fence, recumbent putto with his arms linked over head, and his mate, and one swarming up a tree and another recumbent in the pergola above; the trees with apples, vines and trellised fence are all there, but the tapestry is reversed","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Giulio Romano","id":"A5603"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Although it is not entirely wrong to associate this tapestry with Giulio Romano, it wasn't woven after his design, as some authors have indicated. It is far more likely that the scene - just like the ones of the other tapestries from the group - was based on a design (or a model) prepared by an artist from the circle of Giulio Romano, as Nello Forti Grazzini argued. The same author suggested that these designs were inspired by the frescos painted in a room of Palazzo Te in Mantua between 1531 and 1532."},{"name":{"text":"Nicolas Karcher","id":"AUTH395261"},"association":{"text":"weaver","id":"AAT25367"},"note":"Nicolas Karcher (Nicola Carchera), Flemish tapestry weaver active in Italy. From c. 1517 he and his brother Giovanni Karcher were working for the Este court in Ferrara, organizing a large workshop for Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Modena. That same year Nicolas went to Brussels  and returned with eight weavers, including Jan Rost. Nicolas worked with his brother on the Battle of the Gods and Giants (four pieces; destroyed), the cartoons of which were by the Dossi brothers and Giulio Romano. In 1539, however, Karcher was invited to set up his own workshop in  Mantua by Federico II Gonzaga, 5th Marchese and 1st Duke of Mantua, and took ten workers with him to Mantua.\r\n\r\nIn October 1545 Karcher moved to Florence. His workshop first wove a trial Lamentation (1546; Florence, Uffizi) and a trial pack-cover (destroyed), before a three-year contract was signed by Cosimo I, Duke (later Grand Duke) of Tuscany, on 20 October 1546. Karcher's rival Rost had also  established a workshop in Florence at this time, but on 17 November 1550 Karcher's contract was renewed until 21 October 1553. Karcher participated in the weaving of tapestries for the Duke including the Story of Joseph series (1546-?53), and the Resurrection altarpiece (c. 1546;  Florence, Uffizi) after Salviati, for Benedetto Accolti, Cardinal of Ravenna.\r\n\r\nIn January 1554 Karcher finished his work in Florence and apparently returned to Mantua. On 15 July 1555 Marchese Guglielmo Gonzaga gave Karcher an eight-year patent to weave in Mantua, with 11 other workers. His workshop's masterpiece from this period is the set of the six Stories  of Moses with spalliere of Putti with Garlands (four Milan, Museo del Duomo; three destroyed). \n\nKarcher must be ranked high among Europe's most gifted 16th-century tapestry weavers. He favoured juxtaposing bright colours and the use of flamelike hatching."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wool","id":"x40131"},{"text":"silk","id":"AAT14072"},{"text":"","id":""}],"techniques":[{"text":"tapestry","id":"x42794"},{"text":"","id":""}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wool and silk. 16 warp threads to inch (6-7 cm).","categories":[{"text":"Tapestry","id":"THES48887"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"}],"styles":[{"text":"Renaissance","id":"AAT21140"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2017KB0486","2017KB0484","2017KB0485","2017KB0487","2017KB0490","2017KB0492","2017KB0495","2017KB0496","2017KB0497"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"007","id":"THES325657"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Tapestry","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Ferrara","id":"x32049"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Mantua","id":"x35230"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1540","earliest":"1535-01-01","latest":"1544-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Weight","value":"29","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"30/09/2013","earliest":"2013-09-30","latest":"2013-09-30"},"part":"Weight of object on roller","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"3130","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Top edge","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"3135","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Bottom edge","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"3480","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Proper right","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"3500","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Proper left","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bequeathed by George Salting (1835 - 1909).\nBandini Sale, Christie's, 1899.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Boys at play (Giochi di Putti), 1540c, Ferrara or Mantua; winged cupids on a pergola of vines","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"George Wingfield Digby (assisted by Wendy Hefford), <i>Victoria and Albert Museum. The Tapestry Collection - Medieval and Renaissance</i>, London, 1980, pp. 67-70 (cat. no.66), ill. 94B.\nGuy Delmarcel - Clifford M. Brown, <i>Gli arazzi dei Gonzaga nel Rinascimento</i>, Milano, 2010, p. 103.\nNello Forti Grazzini, <i>Arazzi a Ferrara</i>, Milano, 1982, pp. 78, 161, 188."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["T.405-1910"],"accessionNumberNum":"405","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":1910,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-03","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}