Shepherd and Shepherdess Making Music

Unknown

ca. 1500–1530 · Wool warp; wool and silk wefts · Medieval Art

This tapestry fragment depicts a shepherd couple entertaining themselves with music, while three sheep from their flock graze behind them in the flower-covered background. The shepherdess, seen at the left, holds up a sheet of music as she sings: Chantons sur lerbette Let's sing, on the grass, Avec ta musette with your bagpipe, Quelque note double a tune for two. The shepherd plays a bagpipe, responding with a verse of his own: Cuant est de georgette When she sings Elle a lavoix nette her voice is fair: Mes ie faiz le trouble but I do the work. It is one of three surviving fragments woven after the same series of cartoons, the other pieces of which are in the Detroit Institute of Arts and in Mobilier National in Paris. The shield that hangs between two branches of the orange tree has not yet been identified.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1500–1530

Medium

Wool warp; wool and silk wefts

Culture

South Netherlandish

Department

Medieval Art

Credit line

Bequest of Susan Vanderpoel Clark, 1967