Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris
Portière du Char de Triomphe (Portière of the Triumphal Chariot), late seventeenth century, Based on a design by Charles Le Brun, c. 1659-1665

This tapestry, made to hang over a door as a draught excluder, depicts a triumphal chariot face-on, showing the front of the carriage body and the wheels. It bears a large cartouche featuring the coats of arms of France and Navarre, ringed with the ribbons of the Orders of Saint Michael and the Holy Spirit. Around the cartouche are trophies of arms, breastplates, helmets, flags, and cornucopia. A cloth with a fleur de lys design is draped in the background, in front of a rising royal sun topped with Louis XIV’s motto Nec pluribus impar (above almost all) and a crown and pair of scales. These elements are all framed by an architectural niche, with two winged cupids perched on the entablature. The tapestry border shows alternating fleurs de lys and roses. The reference to the king’s grandeur is unmissable.

The portière was made to a model by the painter Charles Le Brun. Between 1658 and 1661, he designed several tapestries and door curtains on mythological themes for Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV’s finance minister. This one was paired with a design on the theme of Mars. It is not known exactly when and where they were first woven. It may have been at the Manufacture de Maincy, set up by Fouquet himself near his château in Vaux-le-Vicomte, or at the Manufacture royale de tapisseries at Les Gobelins, Paris, where Charles Le Brun was appointed director in 1663. This was where his other tapestries for Fouquet and subsequent designs were produced. Both this tapestry and its companion piece, Mars, were rewoven dozens of times through to 1724, making it hard to pinpoint a single date for this work.