AUDENARDE tapestry panel, Flanders Cabbage leaf with a bull, a lion and a chimera. Wool and silk. Beautifully decorated with cabbage leaves or aristolochia and ferocious beasts. Here, at the top centre a peacock, then halfway up on the left a bull and a lion and on the right a chimera and a lioness, in the top left and right the tapestry of Renaissance castles, and in the background mountains. Beautiful border decorated with garlands of flowers, leaves and fruit. Late 16th c. - Early 17th century H: 222 - W: 176 cm Pieced and fragmented tapestry, braided and lined. Accents and restorations, oxidation and natural wear. Oudenaarde owes its fame to its "verdures", and this reputation has remained attached to the town, even if something else was also produced there. These Oudenaarde tapestries were already being exported to Italy in 1538. Expert : Frank Kassapian