_Wool, Silk, Gold._ H. 3 _ft._ 1 _in._ W. 4 _ft._ ]
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD: _The Virgin in a pale red gown with a dark-blue cloak falling about her is seated on the ground. The child holding a staff in the form of a cross sits on her knee. Beyond is a castle, and against the sky a high mountain. Wide floral border. The high lights are in gold._
This is a most exceptional piece of tapestry, evidently made to special order, probably for a private chapel, after an Italian Renaissance painting. The excessive fineness of the weave and the unstinted use of gold to render the high lights indicate that it was made for a person of wealth and importance.
The painting is faithfully and delicately reproduced and the border is remarkably rich and glowing.
_Wool and Silk._ H. 12 _ft._ W. 17 _ft._ 6 _in._ ]
SANCHO IS TOSSED IN A BLANKET: _Sancho, following Don Quixote's example, has refused to pay the innkeeper, as that is against the tradition of knights-errant and their squires. So the clothmakers of Segovia and the needlemakers of Cordova who chance to be there toss him in a blanket, while Don Quixote sits without on his horse cursing lustily._
The piece is one of a set of illustrations of _Don Quixote_ after David Teniers the Younger. The scene has all the casual and convincing informality and boisterous good spirits for which Teniers' paintings are famous. It quite catches the spirit of the romance which it illustrates. The landscape vista is unusually lovely in color.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
David Teniers the Younger (1610-1694) was trained principally under his father, David the Elder, also famous for paintings of peasant episodes. In 1633 he became Master of the Guild of St. Lukes, and thereafter was Dean of the Guild and painter to the governor, Archduke Leopold William, a position which he continued to hold under the next governor, Don Juan of Austria. In 1663 he helped form the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. He painted innumerable pictures of peasant scenes, many of which have been rendered in tapestry.
TWO PEASANT SCENES: _In the first_ (_No._ 47) _a group of peasants has stopped to rest and talk beside a stream that comes tumbling down in broken cascades beneath a high stone bridge. On the hills in the background are farmhouses and the ruins of castles_.