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A ROYAL LOUIS XIV SAVONNERIE CARPET FRANCE, CIRCA 1669 The charcoal-brown field with bold flourishing polychrome acanthus leaves, entwined with flowers, perching parrots and wingspread eagles, enclosing a central oak leaf framed octagonal panel filled with a bountiful floral bouquet radiating golden lyres, with a pictorial oval lunette to each corner depicting one of the four seasons framed with fruit-filled cornucopiae, within a floral and golden spiralling leaf and rosette border, scattered restorations 24 ft. 7 in. x 11 ft. 6 in. (749 cm. x 350 cm.)
When, in 1661, Louis XIV ascended the throne, France saw a resurgence and flourishing of the woven arts that reflected his unabashed, bold and powerful monarchy. It was decided with his chief minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert, that a refurbishment of the Louvre was necessary to make a statement to the world manifesting the power of the King and the State. One aspect of this huge redecoration plan was to furnish the Galerie d'Apollon and the Galerie du Bord de l'Eau, otherwise known as the Grande Galerie, with carpets of a calibre not yet executed in France.
Up until this time, the majority of French pile carpets were of a relatively small size produced either by the Dupont family on looms in the ateliers of the Louvre or by the Lourdet family, who had established competitive workshops in a former soap factory at Chaillot, (see lot 8 in the present sale for an example of earlier Savonnerie carpet production). Initially, Colbert planned to commission the new carpets for the Louvre from Ottoman weaving workshops in Cairo as the existing carpet workshops in France were unable to produce carpets on the large scale required. Simon Lourdet, working in conjunction with his son Philippe, proposed that he could fulfil the Louvre commission on new, specially built looms. These looms were as wide as the length of the carpet, allowing more weavers to work simultaneously side by side, which helped accelerate the process. Dupont agreed that he could do the same, and the two ateliers worked together for the first time to accomplish this arduous task. Colbert agreed to this proposition, as he wished to promote domestic industries and retain crown funds in France (S. B.Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, p.69).
In 1663 Charles Lebrun, the first painter to the King, was appointed to draw designs for the carpets while working closely with Louis Le Vau, the chief architect, to ensure that all the design elements in the refurbishment were complimentary and harmonious. The carpets were all of equal length but differed in their width depending on their placement within the gallery or the series' overall design scheme. The designs of the individual carpets varied greatly but they all shared a number of unifying characteristics. All depicted lush and colourful scrolling foliage, acanthus leaves and rinceaux against a black or dark coloured ground with a varying central panel. At each end of the carpets, there were panels either representing an allegory or a landscape, sometimes in grisaille. Framing each carpet was a unifying blue and gold egg and dart variant main border flanked by guilloche and leaf-tip minor borders and each corner is overlaid with a royal fleur de lys. Recurring symbols of the Sun, interlaced LL's, fleur-de-lys, crowns, orbs, sceptres, sunflowers and the patron God, Apollo, emphasized the overriding theme of regal glorification. In addition, an apotheosis of Louis XIV was suggested by the allegories of virtue, auspicious traits, and allusions to the Arts and Sciences.
The first thirteen carpets executed were for the Galerie d'Apollon and were considered a trial run for the ninety-three carpets needed to cover the entire Grande Galerie which, at 1,460 feet by 32 feet, was an intimidating project. Work began in both the Lourdet and the Dupont factories in 1667 after the last carpet for the Galerie d'Apo