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The Arming of Hector and Other Scenes, from Scenes from the Trojan War
The Arming of Hector and Other Scenes, from Scenes from the Trojan War
Date:
early 16th century
Location:
Not on display
Century:
16th Century AD
Media:
Wool, Silk; Tapestry Weave
Dimensions:
296 x 177 cm (116 9/16 x 69 11/16 in.)
Department:
Costume and Textile Arts
Object Type:
Furnishing Textile
Country:
Belgium
Continent:
Europe
Culture/People:
Flemish
Accession Number:
1975.5.29
Acquisition Date:
1974-12-10
Credit Line:

Bequest of Hélène Irwin Fagan

Exhibition History:

A Collection Rediscovered: European Tapestries, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum, 1992

The three fragments, including 1975.5.28 and 1975.5.30, are believed to have come from the same large tapestry. Their framework of jeweled or ornamented columns and pilasters relates them to a number of tapestries woven in the late fifteenth century. These architectural elements divide scenes that are often arranged in two or more registers. In this fragment, Hector is being armed for battle in the central foreground. In the lower part of the tapestry, a squire kneeling behind Hector buckles on a piece of leg armor. Hector wears chain mail under his brocade shirt. Andromache, at right, has one hand over her heart; with the other she points to Astyanax. Hector turns his face away from his wife to meet the pleas of King Priam, Queen Hecuba, probably Paris and Helen, and one of the sisters. From Anna Gray Bennett, "Five Centuries of Tapestry: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco" (San Francisco: Chronicle Books; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1976; repr. 1992): pp. 46, 48.

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Contemporaneous Works “Art from the same century and country”