Home > Auction >  paintings, furniture and works of art, jewellery, sculptures, bronzes >  Lot.403 Mythological tapestry. Flanders, about 1600. 260 X 390 CM. Tapestry woven in wool and silk. Against the background of an ideal park landscape with stylized architecture and fine depiction of trees, plants and foliage, the focus of the picture motif is on a rich scene of figures. Female and male figures are portrayed in antique, splendid robes. It is a scene from the mythology of Iphigenia. The legendary tradition of the Iphigenia material was created as a drama by the Greek poet Euripides (480-406 B.C.) already in ancient times. Euripides is the author of the tragedies Iphigenia in Aulis and Iphigenia by the Taurus, when the Greek commander-in-chief Agamemnon and his army tried to cross from Aulis to Troy for the war, but they were prevented from doing so by Artemis due to a lack of wind. This was an act of revenge, since Agamemnon had sacrificed a hind that was sacred to her. From the wise seer Kalchas, Agamemnon then learned that he had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess in order for favorable winds to blow. Shortly before the sacrifice, Artemis replaced the girl at the altar with a hind and abducted her to Tauris. Agamemnon is depicted to the right of the altar, Iphigenia kneels to the left. A mythological tapestry, Flemish, 1600 circa. Wool and silk. Story of Iphigenia. Border missing. Reweavings and repairs.