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.