EGMONT, Justus van - b. 1601 Leiden, d. 1674 Antwerpen - WGA

EGMONT, Justus van

(b. 1601 Leiden, d. 1674 Antwerpen)

Flemish painter and tapestry designer. He was initially a pupil of Caspar van den Hoecke (d. 1648). After a period in Italy, sometime after 1618, he joined the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens. He is one of the few artists whose collaboration with Rubens is documented. He is mentioned several times between 1625 and 1628, for example in 1625, when he was involved in the installation of some of the 44 decorative panels (’ the Medici Cycle’) commissioned from Rubens in 1622 by Marie de’ Medici for the Palais de Luxembourg in Paris. He may also have collaborated in painting some of the panels. In 1628 he became a Master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. Immediately afterwards he left for Paris, where he acquired a considerable reputation, not only as a painter but also as a print publisher. In 1648 he was one of the founders of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. After 1649 various Flemish archives mention him again: first in Brussels (until c. 1655) and then in Antwerp, where he settled.

Portrait of a Lady

The lady beside a fountain, three-quarter length, is said to be the Marchioness of Montchevreuil.

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Tapestry decoration

The picture shows the interior of one of the three rooms in the Palazzo Mansi which have walls entirely covered with Flemish tapestries made in 1665 by the Gerard Poemans factory to designs by Justus van Egmont.

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The Wedding Banquet of Zenobia

This tapestry belongs to the set The History of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, which was originally composed of fifteen pieces kept at the castle of Saint-G�ry (France, Tarn) since the eighteenth century, and four were purchased in Paris in 1928 including the Wedding Banquet.

The tapestry was executed in the workshop of Gerard Peemans, after designs by Justus van Egmont.

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Wedding of Zenobia and Odenatus

Among the most important works Van Egmont did as a history painter after his return to Antwerp are the cartoons for sets of tapestries with scenes from Roman history. Of these, only the History of Zenobia can be linked to him by documentary evidence. In these compositions a vocabulary clearly borrowed from Rubens is translated into a more flamboyant style, with exaggerated figures whose emotive gestures and strongly accentuated facial expressions an inherently dramatic character of the scenes from ancient history depicted.

This is the first tapestry of the set The History of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, which was originally composed of fifteen pieces kept at the castle of Saint-G�ry (France, Tarn) since the eighteenth century, and four were purchased in Paris in 1928 including the Wedding Banquet.

The tapestry was executed in the Brussels workshop of Gerard Peemans.

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