The Departure of Caesar, c.1655-70 (wool & silk)

Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm, The Departure of Caesar from a set of four of the History of Julius Caesar, Marcus de Vos, Brussels, c. 1655-1670. Caesar stands in the centre of the tapestry wearing armour, a cloak and a laurel wreath and holding a baton of command, about to mount a horse which stands to his right with its back to us, held by a groom. Caesar looks over his shoulder to the left where his weeping wife is led away by two female attendants. She wears a faded pinkish dress with red sleeves and has pearls wound into her flowing brown hair. Behind the foreground group of women two more women stand in conversation, and in the background on the right is a group of cavalrymen wearing armour and helmets and carrying pikes and large banners bearing an Imperial double-headed eagle and the letters `SPQR?. The background is a landscape with distant mountains and there is a city on a summit towards the left.