Courtiers in a Rose Garden: A Lady and Two Gentlemen

In the pictureRose vines fill a ground of vertical red, cream and dark navy stripes. The lady in the center wears a round headdress set with pearls and an olive-gold gown whose train spreads wide on the ground; she reaches one hand toward the man on the left and holds a rose stem with the other. The man on the left, in a red hat and a patterned coat, holds up what looks like a round blue hat filled with roses. The man on the right wears a large black hat with a raised gold fold and a pleated grayish-blue coat. In the lower left corner, a monkey holds a white cat.

BackgroundAccording to the Met's records, it was made in the South Netherlands around 1440–50 and measures 288.9 cm high by 325.1 cm wide, making it the only one of the three tapestries in the series that is wider than it is tall. It came to the museum in 1909 through the Rogers Fund together with the other two. There are only three figures, all standing side by side in a single tier. It is also the only one of the three whose subject keywords, as assigned by the Met, include a cat and a monkey. Courtly men and women mingling in a rose garden was a common theme in late medieval literature and tapestry, and the lady's gesture, as if picking a rose to hand over, shows that theme directly.

Puzzle tipWith only three figures, the ground is broad, so it is better to start with 48 pieces. Fit the central lady's headdress and the wide-spreading train of her gown first, then anchor the sides with the left man's round blue hat and the right man's large black hat. The monkey and cat at the lower left tell you where the corner is. For the rest, set the horizontal position by the order of the stripe colors and fill in the rose-vine pieces.