Scenes from the Life of Cyrus: Youth

This is one of a group of sketches for the series of tapestries portraying Stories from the Life of Cyrus made between 1749 and 1762 by the Regia Manifattura Torinese for the Camera di Parata (Ceremonial Queen’s Chamber) in Palazzo Reale, Turin. The high quality of the painting is accompanied by Beaur-mont’s in-depth knowledge of the art of tapestry-weaving. The Museum has eight sketches from this series, and four large cartoons are still extant – three at Stupinigi and one at Rivoli. Documents show that the tapestries, five of which are in Palazzo Reale, Turin, and four in the Quirinale in Rome, where woven between 1749 and 1762.