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The Triumph of Time over Fame

ca. 1500–1530
Not on view
An old man representing Time commands a chariot that crushes Fame beneath its wheels. Four famous long-lived men accompany him on foot: the biblical figures of Adam, Methusalah, and Noah as well as Nestor, from Greek mythology. The humbling theme that fame ultimately is lost to the passage of time derives from I Trionfi (The Triumphs), by the fourteenth-century Italian poet Petrarch. By about 1500, it had been translated into French for Louis XII and pictured in royal tapestries. This tapestry is one of a series from the château de Septmonts, the residence of the bishops of Soissons. Bishop Symphorien de Bullioud, who was familar with Italian culture because of his diplomatic missions to Rome and Milan for Louis XII, likely commissioned the work.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Triumph of Time over Fame
  • Date: ca. 1500–1530
  • Culture: South Netherlandish
  • Medium: Wool warp; wool and silk wefts
  • Dimensions: Overall: 150 1/4 x 148 1/4 in. (381.6 x 376.6 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Bequest of George D. Pratt, 1935
  • Object Number: 41.167.1
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

More Artwork

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Courtiers in a Rose Garden: A Lady and Two Gentlemen, Wool warp; wool, silk, metallic weft yarns, South Netherlandish
Courtiers in a Rose Garden: A Lady and Two Gentlemen
South Netherlandish
ca. 1440–50
Tapestry with the Annunciation, Wool warp, wool with a few metallic wefts, South Netherlandish
Tapestry with the Annunciation
South Netherlandish
ca. 1410–20
Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries), Wool and silk thread, South Netherlandish
Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)
South Netherlandish
ca. 1515–35
Woodcutters Working at a Deer Park (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries), Wool and silk thread, South Netherlandish
Woodcutters Working at a Deer Park (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)
South Netherlandish
ca. 1515–35
Hunting for Wild Boar (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries), Wool, and silk thread, South Netherlandish
Hunting for Wild Boar (from the Hunting Parks Tapestries)
South Netherlandish
ca. 1515–35

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The Triumph of Time over Fame - South Netherlandish - The Metropolitan Museum of Art