Scipio Series: Disembarkation of Scipio’s army in Utica
Author: Andries Van den Dries
Origin: Brussels, Flanders
Dating: 1636-1671
Material: Wool & Silk
Dimensions (cm): 422 x 315
Inv. no.: PD0278
This tapestry depicts the disembarkation of Scipio and his troops at Utica. A boat with several characters dominates the centre and a figure – already on land – points towards the army reunited on the beach. The city may be seen in the background.
Tapestries of Scipio
«In 1959, the Ducal Palace acquired the admirable tapestry series “History of Scipio” woven in Brussels in the second quarter of the 17th century in the workshop of the tapestry maker Andries van Dries. Van Dries was Master of the Brussels tapestry makers’ guild in 1635, received a letter of privilege in 1642 and was one of the founders of the “Pand” in that city in 1658. He was still alive in 1671. Although without documentary evidence, the series of Abraham from the National Museum in Warsaw, the series of Alexander from the Santa Cruz Museum in Toledo, and the series of Phaeton from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, are attributed to him.
From northern Italy to Africa, the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio (235-184/3 BC), fought the Carthaginians and imposed Roman domination over the Iberian Peninsula and northern Africa. Victorious over Hannibal at the Battle of Zama – which marked the end of the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) – Scipio made his triumphal entry into Rome on the chariot of “Victory” and was solemnly led to the Capitol, parading war spoils, prisoners, exotic animals, riches […], soldiers, weapons and trophies […].
He was then given the name Scipio Africanus. His life was narrated by Titus Livius – in his “History of Rome” – more specifically in the episodes related to the Second Punic War. The works of this important Latin historian were known to the men of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance, with several editions in circulation. The same happened with Appian (95 AD – c. 165 AD) whose history of Rome, in high probability, served as a source – namely for the representation of the “Triumph of Scipio”. From Petrarch, the poem “Africa” – as well as his work “Triomphi” – were equally essential to the construction of the pictorial narrative. An important artistic source would have been the work of Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431–1506) “The Triumph of Caesar”, (Hampton Court Palace).
Scipio – rendered almost legendary – was the model of the perfect warrior, simultaneously brave, virtuous and generous, making him a highly appealing subject for any monarch or member of the nobility, who could identify with this figure and emulate the greatness of his qualities.»
Maria Antónia Gentil Quina
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, was one of several Scipios, a celebrated family of ancient Rome, a branch of the gens Cornelia.
Educated and refined, he was a profound admirer of Greek culture. Coming from a family traditionally dedicated to the military service, he distinguished himself from a young age in a military career, becoming a significant general in Roman history.
He achieved great popularity due to his numerous military feats. He fought against the Carthaginian troops at the Battle of the Ticinus (218 BC), where – according to the historian Polybius – he saved his father’s life and, at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC), he already held the rank of military tribune (rank of officer in a Roman legion). In 209 BC, he captured Carthage, securing Roman dominance in the Iberian Peninsula, defeated Hasdrubal Barca at Baecula and then conquered Baetica. He became Consul in 205 BC and ensured the adoption of his plan to land in Africa, despite opposition from conservative nobles. He defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama (202 BC), ending the Second Punic War and, for this feat, he came to be known as “Africanus”.
He also participated in the campaign against Antiochus III, King of the Seleucids. When he returned to Rome (189 BC), victorious once again, he became the target of envy. Subsequently, he abandoned public life and retired to Liternum (the Scipios’ Villa), near Naples.
“Flora in the Palace’s Collections”
«In the mid-17th century, a significant aspect of Flemish tapestry production was the reuse of Renaissance models, which implied that old Italianate cartoons remaining in the tapestry workshops of the previous century were readapted and reinterpreted according to the taste and style of the time.
The series of tapestries The History of Scipio in the Ducal Palace […] – woven more than a century after the first edition, dating from the 1530s – represents this retrospective look at the works of the old Renaissance masters, bringing their cartoons back to be reproduced, on a large scale, by the most important workshops in Brussels, in an attempt to revitalize the industry and keep it prosperous.
However, the ubiquitous ornamental border in all the tapestries of the History of Scipio series refers to sophisticated concepts of floral representation that would be part of the repertoire after the Renaissance. Brussels tapestry makers – such as Andriez van Dries, in whose workshop the tapestries were executed – favored borders with arrangements of flowers, fruits, birds and putti which remained popular with the commissioning clientele until after the third quarter of the 17th century.
Generally, the representation of exotic flowers was mixed with the old native species and, without any roots anchoring them to the ground, they floated in the border like cut flowers that continued to claim the sense of admiration for the explosion of floriculture in the Netherlands – that had already been taking place for decades.
Roses, cornflowers, daffodils, poppies, lilies, columbines, carnations, anemones, marigolds and wild lilies, casually coexist with tulips, guelder roses and sunflowers, which came to occupy a prominent place in garden landscapes from the mid-16th century onwards. A close look will also reveal that the flowers bordering the Scipio tapestries in the Palace, are not always the same in each border, although they are consistent in pattern.
It is curious that when one observes a flower in a garden, it is a demonstration of humanity’s overwhelming desire to capture beauty and scent, to keep them close. Fortunately, the genetic matrices of these flowers still grow spontaneously in wild, in the midst of their natural charm, sometimes, already in a vulnerable or endangered situation due to the pressure of the disordered and careless world in European territories. In the woven borders, as is the case with the Scipio tapestries […], although we can still identify them by their familiar genus, their almost chaotic profusion makes them imperceptible at first glance and, entangled solely by their ornamental behaviour, they are free to be judged on a completely different scale of values from how we evaluate natural flowers and even the distinctly represented flowers in still-lifes.
[…]
Wild lily, bearded iris and columbines are among the most beautiful flowers that open to the narrative gestures of ones imagination, while pinks – in shades of blue, pink and white, which peep from rocky crevices, fallow meadows and arid dunes – seem never to fear hunger and thirst in the skeletal soil that shelters them, regardless of their apparent fragility.»
Sasha Assis Lima
