1.6 Günther XLI, Count of Schwarzburg
The Story of St. Paul allows us to evoke briefly the case of Günther, Count of Schwarzburg (1529-1583), then Count of Schwarzburg-Arnstadt. Günther was an officer and diplomat.1 He began his career as seneschal of Emperor Charles V. He journeyed many times to the Netherlands. He also worked for William the Silent and married William’s sister. Günther entered the service of Maximilian II which is when he acquired his nickname of ‘the Quarrelsome’ (= Bellicosus), as he never obeyed orders. From 1568 to 1573, he was one of the councillors of the Duke of Alba in the Netherlands, then that of Matthias, governor of the Netherlands between 1578 and 1581. Günther died in Antwerp in 1583 and it is not surprising that Flemish tapestries are found in his residence in Arnstadt. Some fragments, still preserved in the city of Thuringia, are the remains of a set of the Story of St. Paul after Pieter Coecke van Aelst I [17-20] bought in 1559 by Günther from a major Antwerp merchant, Pieter van de Walle.2
In conclusion, the German nobility, through its purchases in Flanders and its initiatives, contributed considerably to the success of tapestry in the 16th century. Many other figures could have introduced. All the collections mentioned here offer a corpus of several hundreds tapestries, which have only recently been accessible to specialists and the general public. Much research on the sources and the archives as well as the preserved tapestries, remains to be done. One can only encourage new monographic studies, as much on the owners of large tapestries as the artworks themselves, the weavers and their production, or on the manufactures and the painters.3
17
Anonymous (Flemish) after Pieter Coecke van Aelst (I)
The conversion of Paul, 1559
woven (technique), wool, silk 300 x 386 cm
Arnstadt (Thüringen), Schlossmuseum Arnstadt, inv./cat.nr. Go 9
18
Anonymous (Flemish) after Pieter Coecke van Aelst (I)
Paul preaches to the women of Philippi (Handelingen 16:9-15), 1559>nr>woven (technique), wool, silk 300 x 385 cm
Arnstadt (Thüringen), Schlossmuseum Arnstadt, inv./cat.nr. Go 10
19
Anonymous (Flemish) after Pieter Coecke van Aelst (I)
Paulus before Agrippa, 1559
woven (technique), wool, silk 295 x 219 cm
Arnstadt (Thüringen), Schlossmuseum Arnstadt, inv./cat.nr. Go 1
20
Pieter Coecke van Aelst (I)
Paul preaches to the women of Philippi (Handelingen 16:9-15), c. 1534
Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, inv./cat.nr. 1929:79
Notes
1 On his life, see Beger et al. 2003.
2 For more information on the collection, see Arnstadt 2010. The same kind of this excellent work should be undertaken for every historical figure mentioned in this paper.
3 In this way, our current F.R.S.-FNRS postdoctoral project examines the tapestry collections belonged to the archbishops of Cologne and prince-bishops of Liège from the Wittelsbach family (16th-18th c.). See Laruelle 2021.