The dodo-like bird in the Jagiellonian tapestry is similar to portrait of a dodo by Flemish artist Jacob Hoefnagel. Its representation here is similar to the portrait of a dodo by Flemish artist Jacob Hoefnagel sitting among the menagerie of Emperor Rudolph II in Prague in about 1602. It has a large body, small wings, short legs and a large curving beak. In contrast to the brightly coloured peacock, this bird is made up almost of one colour with brownish-grey plumage. Its beak is facing the centre of the tapestry, as if witnessing Eve reaching for the apple. The dodo-like bird woven on the Jagiellonian tapestry is located towards the edge of the scene, just above a male peacock with magnificent plumage. Peeling back history to reveal Melbourne's faces from the pastīut its depiction may also tell us that along with the other source material the Flemish artists must have used, they also had access to images of the dodo taken from life. If the bird in the tapestry is a dodo, it would make this the oldest extant image of a dodo. The English writer Sir Thomas Herbert was the first to use the word ‘dodo’ in print in his 1634 journal, claiming the bird was referred to as such by the Portuguese, who had visited Mauritius in 1507.īut less than two centuries later, the bird was extinct – the last accepted sighting of a dodo was in 1662. Flemish artists Jan and Roelandt Savery depicted the bird as obese with stubby wings. Sitting among these exotic creatures is a bird, which may be a dodo – a now-extinct flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius. ![]() The tapestry featuring the landscape of the Garden of Eden is full of European and non-European animals and birds and, like the people, are life-like. Orzechowski calls the tapestry the Bliss of Our Ancestors, but he does not mention the dodo. Of the first tapestry, the Garden of Eden, he writes, “stood Adam and Eve, our first parents as well as the ones responsible for our ills, painted by the weaving art”. Orzechowski describes vivid figures, noting their richness “brocaded in gold” and their painting-like realism “There, as if they were alive”. The wedding guests were shown the tapestries which had been hung in the castle’s spacious and well-lit reception halls and rooms, located on the upper floors. He wrote that, following the wedding of Sigismund II August and Catherine of Austria, on 30 July 1553 “…there was revealed an extraordinary magnificence of tapestries which, it appears, had never been seen in the palaces of other kings”. The Jagiellonian tapestry ‘Paradise Bliss’ of the ‘History of the First Parents’ series. The first known account of these tapestries, by Polish courtier and writer Stanisław Orzechowski, was published within a month of their unveiling. One of the Jagiellonian tapestries on the biblical theme of “the first parents” depicts five scenes: the moment of Creation, God’s introduction of Eve to Adam, God commanding Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge, the action of the original sin and finally, the scene of expulsion from Paradise. How did a cockatoo reach 13th century Sicily?īut, surprisingly, they may also contain what might be the oldest known depiction of a dodo. They feature exotic animals from around the world – peacocks, snakes, tigers and parrots. The Jagiellonian arrases are exquisite – telling the Genesis stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Tower of Babel. ![]() Over the centuries, this collection of tapestries has been referred to as the Jagiellonian arrases, taking their name from the dynasty and the town of Arras, in northern France, renowned for its production of tapestries. He was the last male of the Jagiellonian Dynasty, a family of monarchs in Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia, and Hungary – one of the most powerful in eastern central Europe. Most of these tapestries were commissioned by the king, who ruled between 15. Wawel Castle was the royal court of King Sigismund II August. ![]() This month marks 500 years since the birth of Sigismund II August, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, who endowed his royal court with magnificent collections of art.Īmong the collection is a group of richly woven Flemish tapestries that adorn the walls of Wawel Castle which sits in the middle of the Polish city of Kraków.
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