Embroidered hanging: Musical Party in an Exotic Setting

Hanging depicting a scene of figures playing music. The techniques employed in this embroidery include encroaching gobelins stitch and laid and couched work, with small areas in tent stitch and French knots with outlines in stem stitch. The hanging is remarkably well-preserved and the colours fresh. Technically this panel relates to Italian 'needle paintings' rather than to the English tent stitch embroideries. The portrayal of the figures has a somewhat Van Dyckian, northern look, suggesting the intriguing possibility that the hanging could have been made on commission for an English visitor to Italy.