This piece belong to a series of tapestries dedicated to the months of the year, grouped in pairs. The months are represented by female figures who hold the distinctive attributes of each one, following the conventions fixed by the iconology of Cesare Ripa in the sixteenth century. Moreover, each month is accompanied by its corresponding sign of the zodiac and a cortège of putti or winged children who play with the flowers or fruits proper to each season. They are highly representative pieces of the work of the Flemish tapestry makers, who had dominated the European market since the end of the fifteenth century and still preserved their fame and manufacturing vigour during the Baroque. Because of both their rich materials and their visual impressiveness, they were greatly favoured for palace decoration, and more highly appreciated even than painting. Moreover, their compositions were provided by renowned artists, which added still more prestige to the product. At the same time, the cartoons from which they were woven allowed successive issues in order to satisfy the demand of an international clientele keen to enjoy the aura of the work of recognised artists.

Such is the case of this set dedicated to the months, whose first series was commissioned by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria after his arrival in Brussels as governor of the Low Countries. The compositions were designed by Jan van de Hoecke between 1647 and 1649, and he also provided the drawings that were used to make the cartoons. These were executed by a group of artists who distributed the work according to their speciality. Pierre Thijs and Thomas Willeboirts took charge of the figures, while the animals, fundamentally birds and fishes, were entrusted to Adriaen van Utrecht, and the flowers to Jan Brueghel the Younger. The series was woven in about 1650 in the Brussels workshops of Evrard Leyniers III and Gilles van Habbeke. This first cycle was made up of a total of ten tapestries, as the group of six dedicated to the months was completed with another four representing Day, Night, The Four Elements and The Four Seasons.

This princeps series for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm ended up in the Imperial Collections in Vienna after being inherited successively by Archduke Charles Joseph of Habsburg and Emperor Leopold I. The prestige it acquired is demonstrated by the fact that several further sets were woven, of which the only one preserved in its entirety is the one kept at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Subsequently, David Teniers III produced some new cartoons, refashioning Van der Hoecke’s initial designs, in which he included scenes inspired by other compositions by his father, David Teniers II. Several editions of these new compositions were made on the looms of the tapestry manufacturer Gerard Peemans to commissions from variious patrons. Significantly, two of them were commissioned by the holders of important Spanish noble titles. The first of these is recorded as having been woven for the Duke of Pastrana, and the second, the one shown here, for the Duke of Villahermosa. This set, belonging to the Banco de España Collection, and the one at Prague Castle remain intact. There are records of other incomplete series of The Months, with varying numbers of tapestries, at Waddesdon Manor (Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) (four tapestries dated between 1680 and 1700), Holkham Hall (Norfolk) (two pieces), and the set that was kept until 1979 at El Quexigal (Ávila) (three pieces). There is also a fragment of September and October in the Art Institute of Chicago (1938.1309, after 1675).

According to contemporary documentary testimonies, the tapestries for the ninth Duke of Villahermosa, Carlos de Aragón Gurrea y Borja, were being woven in 1679. The agreement reached with Peemans established the production of “six pieces with a height of six anas. The duke pacts a price of 25 and a half florins per ana.” The coatof- arms located on each one under the cartouche with the names of the corresponding months is that of the city of Mons (Bergen in Dutch), the capital of the region of Hainaut (Belgium). During his term as governor of the Low Countries, Villahermosa had managed to raise the French siege of this city in 1678, a feat for which he was awarded the Golden Fleece by Charles II. The Latin motto which accompanies the shield of Mons makes reference to this honour attained through arms by the count during the so-called Franco- Dutch War. Its translation, according to García Calvo, is: “The victory in Hainaut conceded the glory of the fruit and the colours of the blood.” This is the principal motif that shows the tapestry in the collection to be identifiable as the one commissioned by Villahermosa, who would have sought to decorate a room in his family palace with a series that commemorated the event which won him the highest distinction of the Hispanic monarchy. After passing through various owners, they ended up on the antiques market. Having been offered in 1933 to the Duke of Alba, they were finally acquired through the mediation of Livinio Stuyck, also the director of the Royal Tapestry Factory in Madrid, for the central headquarters of the Banco de España. The bank’s General Assembly Room was later refurbished to enable their correct display, and this arrangement is maintained today.

Since this is a set dedicated to the different phases of the year, the allegories used the vegetable repertoire associated with the changing seasons. To the winged personifications of Van de Hoecke’s original design, Teniers added complementary popular scenes taken from his family’s iconographic repertoire. The pagan fable is thus intermingled with idyllic visions of the activities proper to each month. In the tapestry of May and June, he therefore added a villagers’ dance, signifying the joy provoked by the abundance and benign climate of spring. In the meantime, September and October shows the wine harvest. The display of flowers and fruits, among which the infantile putti fly and play in animated postures, dynamically offsets the more solemn figures of the deities of the months.

Ángel Aterido