Kermesse

Towards the end of the 18th century there was a shift in taste to a preference for insignificant matters as opposed to subjects in the “grand style” – i.e., mythology and history. Among the tapestry cartoonists, Richard van Orley was the last painter to recreate mythological subjects; others re-interpreted the animals of Rubens and Snyders. Now genre scenes were woven, and a new “gold-mine” was discovered in Teniers: peasants drinking, dancing and playing skittles; fishermen emptying their nets; gypsy women telling fortunes, all took the place of the gods. The heroic nudes and classical beauties were supplanted by rags and the clothes of the bourgeoisie, by jocund faces and rustic figures, presaging a revolution that would end with the century.

This tapestry, based on models by David Teniers the Younger, was repeated by different French and Brussels manufactories, especially by J. van der Borcht and Le Clerc and Van der Hecke. There are examples of the former at Schönbrun Palace, at the Musée du Cinquentenaire (Brussels), and in a private collection in Paris.