Embroidered panel with Grotesque decoration

Bernard Salomon

1560–70 · Silk thread on silk · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An example of the kind of work [Catherine de Medici] appreciated is the Museum's panel of yellow satin embroidered with silk threads. One of a set of three (the others are in the Musée Historique des Tissus, Lyon), it hung as a valence around the top of a four-poster bed. Various print sources were culled for the airy design of grotesques, while its five vignettes derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses- based on the myths of Europa, Actaeon, Semele, Pyramus, and Salmacis- are adapted from woodcut illustrations published by Bernard Salomon in Lyon in 1557. Its brilliant colors, exquisite design, and sumptuous material would have suited the queen's taste perfectly.

Artist

Bernard Salomon

Date

1560–70

Medium

Silk thread on silk

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1956