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A pair of rare embroidery with biblical subjects
Needlework - South Germany, mid 16th century
H 60 x W 160 cm
each tapestry with a frame.
These rare German embroidery are embroidered on a fine canvas, with wool, silk, linen and metallic threads; almost all the motifs are underlined with a thread (cordonnet) fixed by the "couchure technique".
A "phylactère" in the upper part of the works, over the entire width and indicates in Germanic language the theme of the work:
Story of Rebecca
This panel unfolds in fine embroidery the Story of Rebecca, including the episode of the meeting of Rebecca and Eliezer, Abraham's servant who came, after a long camel journey, to look for a wife for Isaac. Rebecca will be chosen and become Isaac's wife. They will be the parents of Jacob.
History of Jacob
We should note in particular two fairly well-known episodes in the history of Jacob.
Jacob usurps the blessing of his father Isaac: his father being blind, with the complicity of his mother (Rebecca) he pretends to be Esau who was very hairy with goatskin mittens!
The Heavenly Ladder or Jacob's dream: dreaming under the starry night, Jacob sees a ladder in a dream leaning on the earth whose summit reaches the sky. Angels ascend and descend the steps of the mystical ladder; these rungs would symbolize the virtues.
The characters are dressed in Renaissance period costumes.
Bibliography: For a similar work, see Marie Schuette and Sigrid Muller-Christensen, La Broderie, Paris, ed. Albert Morance, 1963, p. 48, n 340, repr. p. 214.
