Detail of interior decoration

Tapestries from the Four Seasons series

Late 17th century

Workshops of Aubusson or Felletin, France

Mirror in a carved walnut frame

Late 17th century

Italy

Casket

Second half of the 17th century

Augsburg, Germany

The reception room is decorated with three tapestries - Spring, Autumn and Winter - belonging to the Four Seasons series. They were produced in Aubusson or neighbouring Felletin in the late 17th century. The tapestries in the series (four in all) have the same height but different widths: evidently they were commissioned to fit some particular room. Spring is embodied by Ceres, the goddess of fertility with a basket of flowers. Winter is a woman in ancient dress warming her hands at an altar fire, while for autumn Bacchus the god of wine-making and Diana the divine huntress are depicted against a background of grape-harvesting. In these tapestries one can detect transformed elements borrowed from the Elements series produced by the Gobelins factory from designs by Charles Lebrun. The centre of the south wall is occupied by a large mirror in a carved walnut frame made in Italy in the late 17th century. On a console table adorned with striking carving stands a casket made in Augsburg in the second half of the 17th century. Such containers decorated with silver filigree and a pattern of semi-precious stones represented a kind of mineral collection and were greatly prized in their time.