Title

Scenes from the parable of Prodigal Son. Tapestry from the cathedral of Palencia

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Object history

On March 18, 1519, when the canons of the cathedral of Palencia met, "the said gentlemen ordered the treasurer and workers to buy up to two hundred and fifty rings of the tapestry that they deemed necessary for the said church due to the lack and need for it", documentation contained in the chapter minutes preserved in the archives of the cathedral of Palencia. According to what is stated, the temple had a shortage of cloths and, considering that their possession brought magnificence, they wanted to acquire them. Taking into account that a Castilian vara has 1.2 Flemish anas ("çinco varas de Castilla por seys anas de Flandes", according to the documents in the General Archive of Simancas), and that a vara, three feet, is 835.905 mm, it was about one hundred square meters of tapestry.

The disposition does not specify how many tapestries were to be acquired, although from the dimensions they had, about sixty anas each (about twenty-five square meters), it seems that they had already decided that they were going to buy four cloths. This must have been so because in 1524 it is noted that there were "quatro tapices grandes nuevos buenos de LX anas de ras", representing the story of the Vices and Virtues. Given the time it took to manufacture a cloth, it is more than likely that they were not commissioned, but were acquired from a merchant, perhaps at the important Feria de Medina del Campo, and hence before five years had elapsed since the purchase agreement, they were documented in the cathedral.

We do not know how much they cost, but due to their size they must have cost a considerable sum. However, fifteen years after their acquisition, the former bishop of Palencia, Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, died as bishop of Burgos, and left to his last see and to that of Palencia two sets of four cloths each. Those of Bishop Fonseca were of a larger size "quatro tapices grandes de ochenta anas" and in 1624 were inventoried as "historias del Testamento Viejo y Nuevo" (stories of the Old and New Testament).

The cloths purchased according to the agreement of 1519, although lacking marks for their style, were manufactured in Brussels around 1515. After their entry into the cathedral of Palencia, they must have continued to hang in the cathedral, although there is no information that allows us to know where, since they continued to fulfill their task of giving magnificence, while the four donated by Bishop Fonseca were placed in the chapter house, where they remain today.

In the first decades of the 20th century the traffic of Spanish works of art was considerable. Without a law to protect the patrimony, each owner did what he considered and if juicy profits were obtained from their sale, there were no qualms about getting rid of the pieces. In the case of the tapestries of the cathedral of Palencia, it seems that the first interested party was Lionel Harris (1862-1943), founder of The Spanish Art Gallery (London), one of the main international antique dealers of works of art from Spain. Harris was after the cloths treasured by the cathedral of Burgos, especially the four donated by Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, two of which were eventually sold, although not to Harris, and are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Harris had also shown interest in the Palencia Cathedral tapestries, although they were finally acquired by the art dealer Arthur Byne (1884-1935) for the American magnate William R. Hearst. Byne, in 1928, drew attention to the Flemish cloths of the temple, and it seems that he then dealt with the secretary of the bishopric. Three years later he received a letter from the dean of the cathedral in which he offered him four cloths: "1931. Dean of Palencia offered set of four Gothic tapestries by letter to S. A. G. Asked 120.000 ptas each. Bought By Hearst" (Archivo José A. Buces, Books Lionel and Tomás Harris, Book II, Palencia).

However, the transaction was being done in secret, for while the dean of the cathedral was negotiating its sale, this was denied by the chapter representative, Matías Vielva, present at the session of the Provincial Commission of Monuments of Palencia, where the rumor circulating about the possibility that the chapter was in negotiations to sell several tapestries was debated. Vielva stated that the canons only wanted to know the value of the tapestries, but in no case to sell them. This was not true, as the four tapestries were eventually sold to Arthur Byne, who sold them to Hearst. Hearst paid for them for $112,500, an amount he paid in two disbursements to Byne, on March 1 and September 17, 1935, to which must be added the expenses derived from their export: $114,665.53. (Hearst Archive at the C. W. Post Center). The sale was consummated without the Dirección General de Bellas Artes having any news of it until the tapestries were out of Spain.

Byne convinced Hearst to buy the tapestries with an argument that was false, although perhaps the dealer did not know it. There was some confusion between the four cloths still in the cathedral and these to determine their provenance. Byne argued that they were those given by Bishop Fonseca, when in fact they were not, since they are the ones that are exhibited in the chapter house today; however, both hangings were manufactured in Flanders at the same time, in the second decade of the 16th century, and had similar themes: those acquired by Hearst show the struggle between the Vices and the Virtues and those that remain in the cathedral of Palencia were part of a series that although in the inventory of the seventeenth century was called the Old and New Testament, actually show the story of the Redemption of Man; those preserved in Palencia are the Vices lead Man to sin, Christ the Savior as a Child, the Virtues defy the Vices when Christ begins his ministry and Christ ascends to Heaven and Man is redeemed before God, which are numbers 2, 5, 6 and 9 of the series of ten cloths that belonged to Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca.

This theme of vices or sins and virtues became very popular in Flemish tapestry from the end of the 15th century. Based on French and German devotional literature, with very influential authors such as Bernard of Clairvaux or Ludolph of Saxony, the representation of sinful Man and his fall from grace to redemption thanks to the arrival of Jesus Christ, with the final triumph of the Virtues, was repeated many times although with differences. These are based on the merchants' interest in variety in order to find a greater number of buyers, which led them to introduce or eliminate characters from the original cartons, but also to the demands of the customers who often wanted to enlarge or reduce a series, so that the scenes had to be rearranged.

From a formal point of view, the Vices and Virtues panels do not differ from the medieval aesthetics, which involved bringing together many characters and different episodes in the same panel. However, there is a dissimilarity between the tapestries of the 15th century and those of the early 16th century due to the incorporation of a border, usually with vegetal elements. The cloths of the cathedral of Palencia bought by Hearst were auctioned after the collapse of his empire. In one of the catalogs for the sale of the magnate's collection, published by Gimbel's in 1941, the four tapestries from Palencia appear(Art objects an Furnishings from the William Randolph Hearst Collection. Presented by Gimbel Brothers New York in cooperation with Saks Fifth Avenue. Under the Direction of Hammer Galleries, New York, 1941, numbers 1203-4, p. 84). Shortly thereafter, in 1943, they were sold to French & Co. of New York for $17,250, a price well below what Hearst had paid years earlier. In 1964 they were acquired by the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (Musée du Cinquantenaire) in Brussels, thus closing the journey of these tapestries, which were manufactured in Brussels and passed to the cathedral of Palencia, to travel to the U.S. and finally back to Brussels.

Description

Episodes from the life of the Prodigal Son

One of the best known Gospel parables is that of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), which was transferred to tapestries of which different copies are preserved. The interpretation is diverse, since it seems that Christ in these and other parables rejects the criticism of those who considered that he should not mix with sinners. In the story, the father ends by rejoicing that his son is returning home. He had demanded his share of the estate and had spent it on dissolute living. When he had used up his wealth, he was forced to work as a swineherd and, faced with such humiliation, he decided to return home to see if his father would admit him, even if only as a laborer, so that he could eat. The father's attitude was totally different, for as soon as he knew that his son had arrived, he ordered that he be dressed in the best clothes and shoes and that a calf be slaughtered to celebrate the event. This was censured by the eldest son, for he had never demanded anything, but the father replied, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours! But it was right to rejoice and be glad, because your brother, who was dead, has come back to life; he was lost, and has been found".

Usual representations of the Prodigal Son show him in three main sequences: when he happily loses himself in sensual pleasures, when he is forced to take care of pigs once ruined, or when he is received by his father upon his return home. However, in this tapestry, despite the size and the inclusion of different scenes, only the depraved life is referred to. In the center of the composition the Prodigal Son appears seated next to a beautiful young woman, while another no less beautiful one grabs him from behind. In front of the group an ark of considerable size shows the riches of the character. While these lasted he had no problem to surround himself with people, mainly women, as can be seen in the different scenes in the tapestry. But when the money ran out he is repudiated, as can be seen in the group placed in the lower right corner, where two women gesticulate pushing him away.

Evidently, the tapestry shows the vices, the sins, in which the prodigal Son fell into as a rich and carefree man. The pride that led him to demand his legitimacy led him to lust, two vices that were considered detestable. It might well have included the scene of his homecoming, mourned and forgiven by the father who rejoices because "he was lost, and is found," so that repentance and mercy recover a sinner. However, this seems to be exposed in the previous tapestry and in the last of the series, which show salvation in judgment by the mercy of Jesus Christ.

This tapestry is complemented by the last one, the virtues intercede for Man, or the second process of paradise.

Locations

• 1519 - 1935

  cathedral

  Palencia Cathedral, Palencia (Spain)

• 1935

  dealer/antiquarian

  Arthur Byne and Mildred Stapley Byne, Madrid (Spain) *

• 1935 - 1943

  private collection

  Collection of William R. Hearst, New York (United States) *

• 1943 - 1964

  dealer/antiquarian

  French & Company, New York (United States) *

• 1964 - present

  museum

  Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, Belgium, Brussels (Belgium)