Antique French Harvest Tapestry Rug 2852

French Carpets — Antique French Tapestry, eighteenth century – Reminiscent of the paintings of Baroque masters like Reubens or Poussin, a scene revelry and sacrifice in a classical, Greco-Roman inspired style unfolds dramatically across the field of this dazzling eighteenth-century French Tapestry. At the center a statue of Demeter or Ceres sits enthroned on a high podium bearing an inscription to her. In her hands she hold her attributes – ears of wheat symbolizing her role as supreme goddess of fertility, and a sickle referring to the harvest. She is crowned by wheat as well. To the right below her priestesses dance holding torches referring to the myth of Demeter’s nocturnal search for her daughter Persephone. Just below the podium is a relief of a plowman tilling the earth, with a basin filled by wine and a branch of laurel in the foreground. At the far left of this beautiful antique French harvest tapestry rug, a sacrifice bends over a slaughtered sow, the offering to Demeter, while above them a priestess holds up a bowl of the animal‘s blood to the goddess, and a priest pours out a further offering of wine. In the foreground at the far left corner is a sheaf of wheat, again a symbol of Demeter’s role as goddess of agricultural bounty. The whole scene depicted in this antique French Harvest Tapestry rug takes place in a monumental classical architectural setting replete with hanging textiles and draperies.