Origin: France - Gobelin

Period: 18th century

Provenance: Private Collection

Composition: Wool and silk

Dimension: W 360 x H 3.16

IMPORTANT TAPESTRY, wool and silk, "La Noce d'Angélique et Médor" (The Wedding of Angelique and Médor), after a cartoon by Charlet Coypel Roland, in the costume of a knight, lies on the ground and asks the shepherds around him for news of Angelique, whom he has been unable to find.

Standing in front of him, the Berber woman Belise, with a staff in her hand, tells him of Angelique's perfidy and her flight with Medor. Numerous villagers standing or lying on the ground occupy both sides of the stage. In the background at right, a standing man shows the following inscriptions carved on the trunk of a tree: "Angélique commits / her heart / Médor is / victorious / That Médor is happy / Angélique has / fulfilled his wishes.

On the right, Médor shows Angélique the inscription he has carved on the tree: these are Quinault's verses for the air of amorous consumption. Angélique and Médor are dressed as shepherds.

On the left, a change of scenery: in an artificial grotto set up in the manner of the grottoes in the gardens of Versailles, Angelica in a pink dress and Medor are dancing a nuptial ballet. Between the grotto and the tree, a third scene is depicted: a furious Roland throws himself at the feet of Angelica.

Although the tapestry depicts three "opera fragments", it is not strictly speaking a narrative composition: the spectators assembled on the left and right of the composition underline the theatricality of the scene, which is articulated around two spaces, the slope on the right with the inscription, or restricted space, and the grotto on the left with the nuptial ballet, a vague space treated in lighter shades and from which an opening to the distance is provided.

Annotations & References

1. On the tree shown to the right by Médor to Angélique, we can read the verses by Quinault, which gave rise to a famous aria by Lulli: "Que Médor est heureux. Angélique has fulfilled his wishes".

2. The aim was to illustrate Lully's opera, libretto by Quinault after Ariosto.

3. The Gobelins tapestry is in the Louvre.

4. Medor and Angelica, ca. 1720, Sebastiano Ricci, Brukenthal National Museum.

5. Art history at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes

6. The Wedding of Angelique and Medor - Louvre Collection

7. A copy of this model is preserved in the Royal Collections of the King of Sweden, offered

on 8 July 1784 by Louis XVI to Gustave III.

Charles Coypel (1694-1752)

French painter, theorist and dramatist. He had a brilliant official career as a history painter and enjoyed the protection of Philippe d'Orléans and then of Queen Marie Leszczynski. His activity as a dramatist is less well known but testifies to his deep interest in the theatre, from which he borrowed the iconography of his paintings and the staging of his characters. Together with his father, he created numerous tapestry designs for the Gobelins Manufacture.

Dramatist and painter: Charles Coypel followed in his father's footsteps by taking up the post of First Painter to the King and Director of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. But he also deepened his reflection on the relationship between painting and theatre by writing and performing numerous plays himself. Prestigious tapestry commissions from the Manufacture des Gobelins enabled him to create "great machines" that rivaled the staging of the opera. His research into time (dilation or, on the contrary, extreme dramatic condensation) and expressiveness in his paintings paved the way for both the bourgeois drama of Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) and the neoclassical purity of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825).

Literary references:

The theme of this painting comes from the chivalric poem Orlando furioso, composed by Ariosto in 1532 and adapted by Philippe Quinault in 1685. The French librettist retained the love story more than the epic character. This lyrical tragedy, set to music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, was replayed at the Palais Royal Theatre in 1727 and then at the Queen's house in Versailles in 1732.

In his painting, Coypel chose Act IV*, a key moment in the tragedy of love. The knight Roland, nephew of Charlemagne, discovers that his bride Angelica has run off with the Saracen soldier Médor, whom she has just married. The shepherds who attended their wedding tell Roland the story, without realising that their tale will lead him to despair.

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