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Source Description
Each of these tapestries depict rustic activities appropriate to the season: fishing and gardening for spring, harvesting of grain in summer, wine making for autumn, and ice skating for winter. As tapestries fell out of vogue in the 1700s and 1800s many were burned so their metal threads could be harvested to mint new coins. Before coming to the Cleveland Museum of Art, these tapestries hung in the family home of Frank H. Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn in Gates Mills, Ohio. Their children donated the tapestries to the museum in 1952.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
130165
label
Four Seasons
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
130165
contentType
object
title
Four Seasons
description
Each of these tapestries depict rustic activities appropriate to the season: fishing and gardening for spring, harvesting of grain in summer, wine making for autumn, and ice skating for winter. As tapestries fell out of vogue in the 1700s and 1800s many were burned so their metal threads could be harvested to mint new coins. Before coming to the Cleveland Museum of Art, these tapestries hung in the family home of Frank H. Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn in Gates Mills, Ohio. Their children donated the tapestries to the museum in 1952.
date
designed c. 1535, woven mid- to late 1600s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
creators
8592
genreSpecific
Tapestry
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Average: 256.5 x 264.2 cm (101 x 104 in.)
cul
France
accession
1952.544
Source extras
tec
Wool, silk, and gold filé; tapestry weave
tombstone
Four Seasons, designed c. 1535, woven mid- to late 1600s. Possibly by Gobelins Manufactory (France, Paris, est. 1662). Wool, silk, and gold filé; tapestry weave; average: 256.5 x 264.2 cm (101 x 104 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Francis Ginn, Marian Ginn Jones, Barbara Ginn Griesinger, and Alexander Ginn in memory of Frank Hadley Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn, 1952.544
collection
Textiles
didYouKnow
At the time of the <em>Four Seasons</em>'s production, weavers at the Gobelins Manufactory in Paris were paid on a wage-scale based on the difficulty of the weaving; those who wove heads and flesh tones were paid the most.
citations
citation
Warwick House, Ltd, and Lucas. <em>The Balloch Castle Seasons of Lucas; Being Four Gobelin Tapestries Rich with Gold, 8 Feet 2 Inches High, with Combined Width of 41 Feet 7 Inches, from Balloch Castle, Near Glasgow, Where They Hung for Nearly Two Centuries; a Companion Set to the Famous Months of Lucas, and by the Same Designer.</em> Baltimore: N.T.A. Munder & Co., printers, 1918.
citation
Hunter, George Leland. "The Loan Exhibition of Tapestries." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 5, no. 8/9 (October-November 1918): 63-87
citation
Hunter, George Leland. <em>Loan Exhibition of Tapestries</em>. <em>Assembled, Arranged and Catalogued by George Leland Hunter. </em>Cleveland Museum of Art<em>. </em>October 5th December 1st 1918.
citation
Hunter, George Leland. “The Cleveland Tapestry Exhibition” in <em>The Art World & Arts & Decoration </em>(November 1918) 25-28.
citation
Hunter, George Leland. "The Cleveland Tapestry Exhibition." <em>The American Magazine of Art</em> 10, no. 4 (1919): 129-37.
citation
Anderson Galleries, Inc. <em>The Henry Symons Collections.</em> New York: Anderson Galleries, 1923.
page_number
nos. 1166-69
citation
Freund, Karl. "Four Gobelin Tapestries," International Studio. (December 1924), 234-238.
citation
Crick-Kuntziger, Marthe, “L’énigme des ‘Mois de Lucas,’” <em>Actes du XIIe Congr</em>ès international d’Histoire de l’Art. Volume 2. Brussels, 1930. 497-505.
citation
Ward, Evelyn Svec. "Four Seasons Tapestries from Gobelins." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 40, no. 6 (1953): 113-19.
page_number
113-119
citation
Standen, Edith A. "Drawings for the "Months of Lucas" Tapestry Series." <em>Master Drawings</em> 9, no. 1 (1971): 3-80.
citation
Standen, Edith Appleton. "Tapestries in the Collection of the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute," Carnegie Magazine. (December 1981), 3-19.
page_number
2-7
citation
Standen, Edith Appleton.<em> European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art</em>. New York: The Museum, 1985.
page_number
322, 330
citation
Detroit Institute of Arts, Alan Phipps Darr, Tracey Albainy, and Melanie Holcomb. <em>Woven Splendor: Five Centuries of European Tapestry in the Detroit Institute of Arts</em>. [Detroit]: The Institute, 1996.
page_number
52-54
citation
Standen, Edith Appleton and Janet Arnold. "The Comte de Toulouse's 'Months of Lucas' Gobelins Tapestries: Sixteenth-Century Designs with Eighteenth-Century Additions," <em>Metropolitan Museum Journal</em>. (1996), 59-79.
citation
Langeois, David, Daniel Alcouffe, Sandrine Riahi, and Musée Du Louvre. <em>Quelques Chefs-D'oeuvre De La Collection Djahanguir Riahi : Ameublement Français Du Xviiie Siècle</em>. Milano: Franco Maria Ricci, 1999.
page_number
66-8
citation
Mironneau, Paul. Musée national du Château de Pau. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2003.
citation
Cleveland Foundation. “Curating the Fine Art of Giving with the Frank Hadley Ginn & Cornelia Root Ginn Charitable Trust,”in <em>Gift of Giving news for donors and friends of the Cleveland Foundation. </em>Spring 2018. 4-5.
citation
Scaturro, Sarah, Robin Hanson, Julia LaPlaca, and Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 1-21, plates 1-4
citation
Lennard, Frances, Patricia Ewer, and Laura Mina. Textile Conservation: Advances in Practice. Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2024.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 610, fig. 8.5.3
creditline
Gift of Francis Ginn, Marian Ginn Jones, Barbara Ginn Griesinger, and Alexander Ginn in memory of Frank Hadley Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:43:31.496000
sourceId
130165
dept
Textiles
coll
Textiles
med
Wool, silk, and gold filé; tapestry weave
creatorTags
gender unknown
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
ff60d0fcb5771e44