The Hunts of Maximilian: January, the Singeing of the Boar at Tervuren
Bernard van Orley (cartoons), Dermoyen workshop (weaving) (c. 1488-1541) · c. 1531
The huge boar has been killed. While its body is carried off, its head and foot are offered, as custom required, to a person of rank in the middle distance at the left. In the centre of the composition the animal hangs from a spit over a fire whose smoke rises in thick coils; hunters and dogs watch the blaze attentively, for the singeing of the bristles is the first step in dressing the carcass. At the right in the middle distance the offal is distributed to the pack. Far in the background stands the château of Tervuren, and its frozen moat serves as a skating rink. The water-bearer of Aquarius appears in the medallion of the upper border. Notice the embroidered inscription in the lower left selvedge recording that the piece was restored at the Gobelins in nineteen twelve.
The tapestry is one of the twelve Hunts of Maximilian, woven in Brussels around fifteen thirty-one after cartoons by Bernard van Orley in wool, silk and silver and gilt thread. It bears the mark of the weaver Guillaume Dermoyen in the lower right selvedge. From the French royal collections, the set entered the museum in seventeen ninety-seven.
Did You Know? Look at the tiny skaters on the frozen moat of Tervuren castle in the background.
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