{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O364910"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O364910/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EP8355/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EP8355/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011EP8355","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BF9420","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8398","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8397","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8396","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8392","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8365","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8364","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8362","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8361","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8360","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8359","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8358","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EP8357","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009BY8410","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O364910/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O364910","accessionNumber":"T.212-1985","objectType":"Tapestry","titles":[{"title":"Circe","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Tapestry of wool and silk, with scene from the story of Circe and Picus.\n\nIn open country the young king Picus rides his magnificent dapple-grey horse towards woods at the left. His blue saddle-cloth is embroidered with golden cornucopias; and he is richly dressed, wearing a crown set with sapphires and pearls and a heavy cloak edged with pearls, fastened with a jewelled gold brooch. This cloak has an indeterminate pattern in blue on a ground in which the colour varies from light yellow through peachy-pink to dark tawny brown, almost maroon. (Beneath a blue cuirass), his green tunic ends in bands of red and a pink fringe. A sword hangs from his belt. His buskins are decorated with a golden mask and a harpy. Picus is out hunting, two spears clasped in his right hand. He makes a gesture of rejection as he looks back at the woman who stands on the very spot over which his horse has just galloped.  Her feet are on a plane of the tapestry between the two rear hooves of his horse, and although he turns as though she is on his left, the tail of his horse floats across her as though she is on his right.  \r\n\r\nIn this impossible location stands the stately figure of the enchantress Circe, imperiously raising her magic wand. She holds the herbs she was collecting for her potions.  Her clothes are vaguely exotic, and very rich. Scarf and girdle are of transparent silk with multicoloured bands. A bright red tunic, heavy at the hem with golden embroidery, hangs over her white robe embroidered or painted with small, isolated, polychrome flowers, no two alike. Large puffs of white undersleeve at shoulder and elbow are constrained on upper and lower arm by tight sleeves matching the tunic, and jewelled straps encircle her upper arm and confine the shoulder puff with a vertical strap which has at either end precious stones massively set in figured gold. Circe also has jewels of cuffs, neckline and hem of her garments; plus gold bracelets; earrings; a large brooch; an elaborate diadem, and a gravity-defying little crown. \r\n\r\nFar left in the tapestry on the edge of distant wood are figures of five huntsmen, companions of Picus. The ground is vigorously hatched in shades of brown and green, with blues for shadows and distances. The sky, a deep blue at the top of the tapestry, shades through creamy-brown-grey cloud, to luminous pale pinks and yellows on the horizon. \n\n<b>Border description</b>                 \r\n\r\nThe composition of this border neither turns corners nor do the upper and lower borders relate to the side panel.  Which, with the scene are edited by a 3-bead and reel mounlding shared bead-and-reel a correctly lit rebate. Crossing the whole width of the tapestry above and below are  meandering acanthus stems bearing different fruits and flowers, some naturalistic, some stylised.  Pomegranates, tulips, pears, leaves etc repeat in reverse about the centre, although treatment of individual elements differs on either side. A plain band lacking bead-and-reel, dividing lower border from outer edging (both dark blue), makes that border look like an afterthought, especially as the lower border is less deep than the one above, and at the top of the tapestry a line of rectangles is shaded to give the appearance of a row of dentils below a cornice, only there is no cornice.  \r\n\r\nBy contrast the side borders are well designed grotesques. Within the bead-and-reel, an inner surround of yellow pierced stonework supports deep pink drapery above crossed cornucopias which rest on a cartouche above a green velvet cushion with yellow tassels balanced on the head of a female herm. A yellow drape hangs behind the herm, from its head, and in front of the join between torso and pedestal is pink drapery matching the one above. The herm’s pedestal slots into a stand featuring two rectangles with diamond bezels, like the one beneath, border-wide, used to fill a gap left by adapting an earlier border that had large components in the corners. \r\n\r\nIn the oval side cartouches scenes depicting riders are roughly identical.  Two riders walk their horses to the left, a youth in red doublet and cap apparently being instructed by an older, bearded man who turns to look at him. In the bottom border, a rectangular frame, plain and rather crude, with loops at the corners (a scallop shell being the only link with the more sophisticated side cartouches) contains another riding scene, with a fallen horse and rider. The horse’s head is to the right. Its rider, fallen on the far side of the horse, has one foot still over the saddlecloth, one arm outflung, and his helmeted head turned up to the sky. \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nIntegrally woven in the top border, which it slightly overlaps, is a coat-of-arms surmounted by the coronet of an earl. This denotes Henry Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, and his wife Penelope, daughter of Barnabas O’Brien, Earl of Thomond. The first quartering is Argent, a chevron sable, between three stars waved of the same, for Mordaunt.ii \n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Francis clein","id":"A1338"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"mortlake","id":"A9184"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Lambeth or Mortlake\r\n"}],"artistMakerPeople":[{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"The workshop of John and William Benood (anglicized to Bennett) "},{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"materials":[{"text":"wool yarn","id":"x30441"},{"text":"silk thread","id":"x30127"},{"text":"silk","id":"AAT14072"},{"text":"worsted","id":"AAT227943"}],"techniques":[{"text":"woven","id":"AAT53642"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Tapestry woven in wool and silk","categories":[{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"},{"text":"Tapestry","id":"THES48887"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2011EP8355","2006BF9420","2011EP8398","2011EP8397","2011EP8396","2011EP8392","2011EP8365","2011EP8364","2011EP8362","2011EP8361","2011EP8360","2011EP8359","2011EP8358","2011EP8357","2009BY8410"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES325583"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Tapestry","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Lambeth","id":"x29476"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1650-1670","earliest":"1650-01-01","latest":"1670-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Scene designed c.1635-6.  Probably woven .c1650-1670."}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"From Drayton House by private treaty sale.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"482","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"top edge","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"473","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"bottom edge","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"374","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"left side","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"361","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"right side","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"44","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"30/09/2013","earliest":"2013-09-30","latest":"2013-09-30"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Weight including roller","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"<b>DATE AND MANUFACTURE </b>\r\n\r\nHenry Mordaunt became Earl of Peterborough in 1642, married Penelope O’Brien in 1644, and lived until 1697, his wife dying in 1702. These facts provide no precise dating for the tapestries with their arms; nor is this set documented before September 1710, when an inventory of Drayton House recorded in the one of the drawing rooms “Two pieces of tapestry hangings with great horses and men”, and in the associated bedchamber (now called the State Bedroom) “Three pieces of Great hors hangings”.  \r\n\r\nPeterborough’s purchase of these tapestries was unlikely to have occurred in the later 1640s, when, having fought against the parliamentary forces, he went twice into exile, in 1646 and 1649, compounded for his estates. Apparently his finances were sufficiently recovered by 1653 for him to plan refurbishment of Drayton, as evidenced by John Webb’s dated drawings for doorcases and an overmantle that correspond to surviving features of the present State Bedchamber and associated Blue Drawing Room.  Most writers on Drayton House consider the <i>Horses</i> tapestries to have been made at Mortlake for these two rooms before or around 1660.  If this was the case, the four hangings still in the bedchamber do not fit very well today. Upper or lower borders cannot now be fully seen, confined in frames placed awkwardly above the wainscot; and the two Minos and Scylla pieces, although woven to prescribed widths, are partly hidden by the bed.  It cannot therefore be assumed either that these tapestries were commissioned for their present positions, or, if they were indeed made for Drayton House (rather than for the Peterborough’s accommodation in London when the Earl held official posts after the Restoration), that they were not woven in the 1670s, when work on Drayton House was resumed after a period of some financial constraint in the later 1660s.  \r\n\r\nThe clumsy border design, and the unnatural position of Circe that is possibly due to adaptation of a cartoon originally wider, also seem to indicate a period of diminishing care in relation to design, and possibly point to a manufactory other than Mortlake. Informed opinion has wavered between attributions of Mortlake and Lambeth for the Drayton<i> Horses</i>.  H.C. Marillier, who identified the series as <i>The Horses</i>, at first ruled out a Lambeth derivation because he was under the impression that the Lambeth manufactory used not a ‘Mortlake’ [i.e. ‘England’] mark, but the arms of the City of London found on a tapestry with the initials I.B., which he mistakenly took to stand for Jan Benood. Even so, his decision in favour of Mortlake was extremely tentative: “on the whole it does not seem unsafe to say that the Drayton House tapestries are a Mortlake set…”; and three years later he retracted this cautious conclusion, stating of the Drayton and Easton Neston sets: “whether they are original Mortlake productions or owe their genius to Benood is uncertain”. In 1929 <i>Circe</i> was exhibited as “Mortlake or Lambeth”: in 1951 it was shown at Birmingham along with the two Drayton pieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in the section described as ‘later Mortlake’.\r\n\r\nGiven the evidence of the ‘England’ mark, hitherto called ‘Mortlake’, on one of the Drayton pieces in The Metropolitan Museum with a border similar to one on the Earl of Meath’s same subject with the inscription MADE AT LAMBETH, Edith Standen in her catalogue settled for “probably Mortlake”. That, however, was before the Stapleford Park <i>Destruction of <i>Niobe’s Children</i></i> that is en suite with Meath’s Lambeth piece  was taken down from high on a staircase and binding on the right edge removed, revealing an ‘England’ mark not only identical in shape to the one on the Drayton tapestry, and to that same mark on double-marked pieces of Columns with Flowers, but also sharing the idiosyncratically high placing.  This tips the balance in favour of a Lambeth origin for the Drayton<i> Horses</i>; an attribution supported by the insertion in Minos and Scylla of a figure from a Vulcan and Venus cartoon then in use at Lambeth, and by utilisation of the relatively unsophisticated border: at Mortlake there would have been available some of Clein’s superb original sets of borders, including one designed for <i>The Horses</i> attached to later Alexander tapestries roughly contemporary with <i>Circe</i>. It is true that the border is better composed on the Drayton set than on the marked Lambeth set, with intended symmetry in upper and lower scrolls even if there are differences in execution; but that is insufficient to argue weaving in two workshops. Minor differences of weave and interpretation of design between the Earl of Meath’s Lambeth tapestries and the Drayton equivalents are no more noticeable than between different pieces in the Drayton set, or even between one side and the other in the same Drayton tapestry, so presenting no bar to the Lambeth attribution.  \r\n\r\nIn the absence of documentation some doubt must linger. There is, however, no positive evidence that Clein’s original cartoons for <i>The Horses</i> were at Mortlake in the latter half of the century, while the excellent interpretation of the background scene in<i> Circe</i> suggests that they were at Lambeth. William Benood, who certainly had a set of cartoons of the coarse Vulcan and Venus series, which were still at Mortlake when all the cartoons there were listed in 1651 may, have been able to acquire the original cartoons of <i>The Horses</i>, or at least good copies of them.  \n\n<b>PROVENANCE AND ACQUISITION </b>\r\n\r\nHenry Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, left Drayton and its contents to his daughter Mary (d.1705), Duchess of Norfolk, who, after her divorce in 1700, married Sir John Germaine (d.1718). It was his second wife, Elizabeth Berkley (Lady Betty Germaine), who in 1769  bequeathed Drayton to her nephew, Lord George Sackville. His son left the house to a niece who married into the Stopford family, and her son took the additional name of Sackville. \r\n\r\nIn 1920 Colonel S.G. Stopford Sackville sold the two pieces of the Drayton <i>Horses</i> now in The Metropolitan Museum in New York, so the set was already broken when <i>Circe</i>, not used in the tapestry room at Drayton House, came to the V&amp;A Museum by private treaty sale in 1985. \r\n\r\nPurchased. Registered File number 1985/1036.","historicalContext":"This object record is based on the manuscript for the book <i>From Mortlake to Soho: English Tapestry 1619-1782. Including a Catalogue of Tapestries in the Victoria and Albert Museum</i> by Wendy Hefford (1938-2022).","briefDescription":"The Horses: Circe and Picus, Benood (Bennet) workshop in Lambeth, 1650-1670","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"H.C. Marillier, <i>English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century,</i> 1930, p.xv, p.14, \r\nJ. Cornforth, <i>Country Life, </i>1965, pp. 1346-1350\nRobert Halstead,<i> A Succinct Genealogy of the House of Mordaunt,</i>1685, pp.404-441.\n"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Circe","id":"N314"},{"text":"Picus","id":"N15309"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["T.212-1985"],"accessionNumberNum":"212","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":1985,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-11","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}