A 16th Century German Armorial Tapestry Cushion Cover

Circa 1530-1550. Perhaps woven in Nuremburg.

Woven in wool, silk and metal thread on linen warp threads, with two escutcheons below a seraph with an aulos, or double flute, that below the shields becomes two tasselled cords, on a ground imitative of a 16th century Italian green silk damask or cut and uncut figured velvet, with two roses and two ‘water flowers’ to the corners, within a red border.

The left hand escutcheon bears the Keutschach arms of a turnip on a blue ground, and the right hand has a flower and a chalice within a hexagram.

The Keutschach family had their seat in the Carinthian district of Klagenfurt-Land, on the banks of the Keutschacher See, their wealth owed primarily to agriculture , and this fundamental reason for the use of the turnip on their coat of arms was later embellished with variations of a legend involving the most celebrated member of the family, Leonhard von Keutschach (1442(?)-8th June 1519). Elected Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg in 1495, von Keutschach ruled successfully until his death, reconciling an internally riven Salzburg, reforming and greatly enriching the economy, and fortifying its defences, with the result that under his authority the principality became one of the richest in the Holy Roman Empire, and an environment within which art and culture began to flourish. The tradition later arose that, when still a schoolboy, Leonhard had visited his uncle who admonished him for either his scholarly ineptitude and apathy, or for his reluctance to work the fields. An impertinent reply provoked the uncle to hurl an uprooted turnip at the departing child and to warn him that a lack of application would lead to his ostracism from the family, and this episode proved the spring for his future diligence and ultimate success.

The chalice and flower within a six pointed star is perhaps the emblem of a brewers' guild, the hexagram being the brewers’ alchemical symbol. One of the oldest guild emblems of brewers and maltsters, it was prevalent in Nuremburg and other areas of southern Germany from the later Middle Ages. The presence of a chalice behind the flower would serve to reinforce this assumption. It was not commonly recognised as representative of Judaism prior to its use in 17th century Prague, and was not widely adopted as such until the 19th century.

In this context, Leonhard von Keutschach's abortive attempt to impose a ban on the production of good quality beer by private breweries in Salzburg so that the production and sale of beer from his own breweries should prosper is compelling, but it is more likely that this tapestry cushion cover was commissioned to commemorate the marriage of a member of the Keutschach family to the scion of a family whose wealth may have derived initially from brewing.

A silk of the first half of the 16th century in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number: 46.156.116, has a version of the design reproduced in tapestry here as the background. Interestingly, the cataloguing of this silk postulates that this pattern was widely used in the context of matrimony.

The two flowers alternating as decoration to the corners, a wild, or dog, rose and a flower reminiscent of the ‘water flower’ found in 15th century opus anglicanum embroidery, perhaps also connote marriage, the first epitomizing the female partner, the second the male. As Frank & Peter Rhodes stated in the article ‘Medieval Embroidered ‘Water Flowers’’ (2016, Textile History, 47:2, 243-248, DOI: 10.1080/00404969.2016.1211441) “The tall central cones… (of these latter) …owe more to the idea of the sword than to elongated iris stems”.

The aulos, a wind instrument of ancient origin with two pipes that is sometimes termed a double flute or double oboe and is held here in the mouth of the presiding seraph, is mentioned in fragment 44 of Sappho’s poetry as accompanyi