Tapestry: L'Empereur en voyage, from L'Histoire de l'empereur de la Chine Series

In a tapestry from the series known as The Story of the Emperor of China, four attendants carry the Emperor in a palanquin. Two guards on horseback follow the procession, one wearing a sword and bearing the imperial banner and the other carrying a quiver of arrows over his shoulder. The path in front is strewn with cut flowers, apparently from baskets like the one that remains in the center bottom, resting on the border. Birds fill the air above and the palace is visible in the distance.

These tapestries are from a series called The Story of the Emperor of China, featuring imagined Chinese scenes. The Getty has six other tapestries from this same set: La Collation, La Récolte es ananas, Les Astronomes, Le Retour de la chasse, Le Thé de l’impératrice, and L’Embarquement de l’impératrice.