Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

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Title: Bathing Scene
Creator:
Description: This tapestry presents a luxurious scene of a woman bathing with her attendants and belongs to a series of six tapestries depicting idealized aspects of manorial life (La Vie seigneuriale). In the center of the scene a youthful lady bathes in an ornate fountain. She is shown naked from the waist up except for her necklace and French hood, and a length of sheer fabric draped over her right arm. Two musicians play a flute and a viole, a medieval stringed instrument, behind the bathing woman. A male attendant brings a sponge and a basket, perhaps filled with soaps, and two female attendants present the bathing lady with a box of jewels and a platter of pastries. As Isabelle Bardiès-Fronty notes, the nudity of the bather and the focus on pleasure and luxury in the tapestry recall representations of Venus bathing, popular from antiquity to the Renaissance. The presence of male servants as well as ladies-in-waiting adds to the erotic atmosphere of the scene (Bardiès-Fronty, 2009). The fountain bubbles out into a duck pond, drawing attention to the verdant floral background of the tapestry. The rich floral motif that dominates the tapestry, known as millefleurs, is characteristic of southern Netherlandish luxury weaving and suggests a very wealthy patron for the tapestry series.
Source: WorldImages (California State University)
Subject (See Also): Bathing Luxury Nature Noblewomen Nude
Geographic Area: Low Countries
Century: 15-
Date: ca. 1500
Related Work: Alternate view: http://argaud.pagesperso-orange.fr/photos-2012/paris/slides/1697-tapisserie.jpg; Tapestries from La Vie seigneuriale: Reading http://www.revendeurs.rmngp.fr/uploads/photos/4401/3896_xl.jpg; A Walk Outdoors http://frenchrenaissancecostume.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/cluny-tapisseries.jpg; Embroidery http://www.revendeurs.rmngp.fr/uploads/photos/4400/3895_xl.jpg; A Falcon Hunt http://www.revendeurs.rmngp.fr/uploads/photos/4373/3868_xl.jpg
Current Location: Paris, Musée National du Moyen-Age - thermes et hôtel de Cluny,Cl 2180
Original Location: Netherlands, S.
Artistic Type (Category): Digital Images; Textiles
Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Silk; Wool; Tapestries
Donor:
Height/Width/Length(cm): 285/285/
Inscription:
Related Resources: Bardiès-Fronty, Isabelle. "Le Bain tenture de La Vie seigneuriale" in Le Bain et le Miroir: soins du corps et cosmétiques de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance. Ed. Isabelle Bardiès-Fronty, Michèle Bimbenet-Privat and Philippe Walter. Gallimard, 2009. p. 244; Joubert, Fabienne, Amaury Lefebure, and Pascal-Francois Bertrand. Histoire de la tapisserie: En Europe, du Moyen Age a nos jours. Flammarion, 1995. pp. 37-39. Weigert, Laura. "Chambres d'amour: Tapestries of Love and the Texturing of Space." Oxford Art Journal 31:3 (2008), pp. 317-36;