Two tapestries - The Bath and The Letter

Two tapestries - The Bath and The Letter – on display in Paris

Two tapestries – The Bath and The Letter – are on display at the Cluny Museum in Paris.

The Bath (16th century) is a Renaissance wool and silk tapestry made in southern Netherlands. It is of the millefleur type (thousand flowers) – decorated with a profusion of plants and flowers in the background. It shows a young woman bathing among musicians and assistants.

The Letter tapestry was made during the same period as The Bath tapestry, by the same artisans. A woman sits in an armchair decorated with millefleur tapestries. She is spinning wool while a young man presents or reads a letter to her. There is a small dog in the lady’s lap and a cat at her feet. The birds in the foreground include a partridge, a spoonbill, and a bird flying above her.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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