A BRUSSELS BIBLICAL TAPESTRY 'THE DISCOVERY OF MOSES' EARLY 18TH CENTURY, FRANS VAN DER BORGHT WORKSHOP BRUSSELS Probably after designs by Jan Van Orley and Augustin Coppens, woven in silk and wool with Moses in a basket being saved by the Queen of Egypt, with attendant figures, verdure setting, townscape beyond, Brussels town mark and signed to lower margin F V D Borght approximately 315cm high, 376cm wideProvenance: Formerly the Messel family collection at Nymans Removed to the Drawing Room at Holmstead Manor in 1947 after the disastrous fire and thence by descent to Oliver Messel Supplied by Oliver Messel to Frederick and Phyllis Baden Watkins for Flaxley AbbeyWhilst the figural designs is traditionally attributed to the Flemish artist Jan Van Orley- it would seem likely that the landscape setting may have been the work of Augustin Coppens. In this collaboration they were echoing the work of Nicholas Poussin and Charles Le Brun at the royal tapestry works at Gobelins from the 1680s. This particular design is known to have been woven by various members of the Borght weaving dynasty but signed examples are rare. A similar example, catalogued as being from the workshop Van der Borcht, Brussels, 1737 hangs in the Princes' Chamber in the Maastricht Town Hall.For a similar tapestry depicting this exact scene MOISE SAUVE DES EAUX- attributed to Peter and Frans Van Der Borght but unsigned and reduced in width, see Christie's Paris 'Important Mobilier Et Objets D'art, Tableaux Et Ceramiques', 7th December 2005, lot 144 sold EUR 36,000.Literature: N. de Reniès, 'Jean van Orley Cartonnier: La Tenture d'Achille au Musée Jacquemart- André', Gazette des beaux Arts, February 1995, p. 172