A Louis XIV Tapestry Portii6re des Renommees with the arms of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Gobelins, circa 1664, atelier of Jean de la Croix, after Charles Le Brun, the arms of Colbert depicted in a serpent surmounted by a coronet upheld by two winged

A Louis XIV Tapestry Portii6re des Renommees with the arms of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Gobelins, circa 1664, atelier of Jean de la Croix, after Charles Le Brun, the arms of Colbert depicted in a serpent surmounted by a coronet upheld by two winged children and supported by allegorical figures of Plenty, one holding a key and seal with emblems of France, with a symbolic cockerel and a dog for Fidelity at their feet, in gadrooned border with outer frame of ribbon-tied oak and laurel leaves, in wool and silk, some detail particularly in the arms and the coronet in metal thread; some splits and extensive minor repairs, the lower part of the scale-pattern mantling below the crest mostly rewoven,, 295cm high, 215cm wide; 9ft 8in, 7ft 1in Provenance: Swiss Private Collection; Sotheby's, Zurich, 25th November 1992, lot 74 Literature: Maurice Fenaille - Etat general des tapisseries la manufacture des Gobelins, Vol. II, Paris, 1903, p.1-8, illustration facing p.22, noting the set of armorial portieres with the arms of Colbert as a modification of the design by Charles Le Bran for the first series of portieres a renommees' with the royal arms initially woven for Louis XIV at Mainey. In the Colbert portieres the royal arms are replaced by those of Colbert, the demi-figures issuing from horns of plenty and holding laurel festoons are replaced by full length standing figures upholding drapery and the lion in the lower left corner is replaced by a cockerel. Gobel - Wandteppiche, Part II, Leipzig, 1928, Vol. I, p.120, noting a set of six armorial portieres listed in the 1683 inventory of Colbert's effects, of which two were noted by Gobel as then in the possession of the Munich dealer Bernheimer Vol.11, colour plate facing abb.70 possibly the same two portieres recorded previously by Fenaille as 'Deux portieres aux armes de Colbert chez M. Deniere, a Paris'. Two similar Portieres with the arms of Colbert, possibly the Bernheimer pieces, were sold Christies, London, 18th May, 1995, lots 206-207 In the present tapestry the serpent is depicted in reverse to all other illustrated examples. Although as a private commission the Colbert portieres are not recorded in the official etats de fabrication' they have a particular significance in the history of the Gobelins tapestry manufactory. As a direct consequence of the downfall of Nicholas Fouquet, the disgraced Surintendant des Finances, Colbert purchased the Hotel des Gobelins in Paris in 1662, uniting there the former ateliers of the Galerie du Louvre with the ateliers of Hippolyte de Comans with the weavers Jean Jans and Jean De la Croix and the ateliers of Maincy near Vaux-le-Vicomte recently established there by Fouquet under the direction of Charles Le Brun. In 1667 the Gobelins was officially established as the Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne of which Colbert was the first of the Surintendants et Directeurs des Batiments du Roi' 1662-1683 Jean-Baptiste Colbert was born in 1619 On His deathbed Cardinal Mazarin recommended Colbert to Louis XIV as His successor and in 1665 He was appointed controleur-general des finances' in succession to Fouquet. Colbert was an enthusiastic and generous patron of the arts and sciences and was responsible for a new age of creative activity in France, but the unbounded extravagances of the king led him to raise money in ways objectionable to him and to have to maintain high taxes even in times of peace which led to His increasing unpopularity. He died in 1683 greatly disappointed that His services to His country were not appreciated by His master. 'Because He had brains without birth, it is said that He was vexed and persecuted, both in private and public life, by those, who having birth, lacked brains'