So called Medici tapestries (I-IV.) - Playing putti IV., putti with peacock (20003. inv. no.)

Copies made in the Barberini manufacture in Rome around 1635 of the original Brussels tapestries woven between 1521 and 1524 after the cartoons of Giovanni da Udine and Tommaso Vincidor based on Raphael’s designs.
In the autumn of 1517, four years after the election of cardinal Giovanni di Lorenzo Medici (1475–1521) – the son of the famous and immensely rich Lorenzo “il Magnifico” (1449–1492) – pope as Leo X in Rome, major reconstructions began in the Constantine room of the papal suites. Raphael as the supervisor of the work (1483–1520) had to design an occasional decoration in addition to the frescoes of the room which could provide appropriate backdrop to the culinary pleasures of the honorary receptions following the semi-official papal audiences. This purpose was served by the twenty wall hangings of the same size the choice of whose themes was influenced by peculiar ideas of classical antiquity. The Italian art of the period had a penchant for the winged naked children – putti – who were believed to be creatures of paradise and were depicted with various attributes stressing the “status” of the client. In these tapestries the emblems and motifs referring to the client Pope Leo X and the Medici family are emphasized. The latter include the ostrich feathers with a ring with precious stones and the yoke, the latter are the lion, papal tiara and keys. The original set arrived in Rome from the Brussels workshop of Pieter van Aelst (c. 1450–1531/1533) in 1524. In the years around 1800 it was lost and probably perished during the Napoleonic wars. In the first half of the 17th century the Roman Barberini manufacture made several copies of the series known by the name “Children’s Games”. Four of them came into a Hungarian private collection in the 1930s and the Museum of Applied Arts purchased them in 1946.