The Hunts of Maximilian: June, the Hunters' Meal
Bernard van Orley (cartoons), Dermoyen workshop (weaving) (c. 1488-1541) · c. 1531
The picnic begun in the May tapestry is now under way. In a clearing, a servant at the left pulls from a spring a flask he had left there to cool; others carry poultry. Behind a long table in the centre two men talk with animation. The one on the right is thought to be the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and the older man on the left either his brother Ferdinand or their grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian the First, which would explain his age. Two magnificent greyhounds occupy the foreground. At the right two hunters comment on the scene while beside them a dog handler kisses a large, affectionate pointer on the muzzle. The crab of Cancer appears in the medallion at the top.
The tapestry is one of the twelve Hunts of Maximilian, woven in Brussels around fifteen thirty-one after cartoons by Bernard van Orley. The old emperor at the table is why the whole cycle bears Maximilian's name, though it was made a decade after his death. The Brussels mark and the mark of the weaver Dermoyen are in the lower selvedges. The set came to the museum from the royal collections in seventeen ninety-seven.
Did You Know? The old man at the table may be Emperor Maximilian himself, which is how the whole twelve-piece set got its name.
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