Courtiers in a Rose Garden: Two Ladies and Two Gentlemen

In the pictureA ground of dark teal, red and cream vertical stripes is filled with rose vines, and four figures stand staggered in upper and lower tiers. The man at the upper left wears a large grayish-white hat and a blue striped coat, with letter-like patterns woven into his sleeve. The woman below him, in a headdress raised on both sides and a blue dress, holds a rose branch. The woman at the upper right wears a large white veiled headdress, and the man at the lower right wears a red pleated hat and a fur-trimmed brown garment. The two on the right also hold small rose branches. At the far left edge, a figure in red is half cut off.

BackgroundAccording to the Met's records, it was woven around 1440–50 in the South Netherlands with wool warp and wool, silk and metallic weft yarns, and measures 314.3 cm high and 247.7 cm wide. It came in 1909 through the Rogers Fund together with two other tapestries of the same title from the series. The composition of figures staggered in two tiers is the same as in Four Gentlemen and Four Ladies, but with only four figures, much more of the striped ground shows here than in that tapestry crowded with eight. The figure cut off at the left edge suggests this piece may have been divided from a larger hanging. The figures' clothing and headdresses appear to follow the fashions of the mid-15th-century Burgundian court.

Puzzle tipThe order of the stripe colors lets you estimate each piece's horizontal position. The white veil of the woman at the upper right and the grayish-white hat of the man at the upper left stand out most, so place them first, then set the lower tier with the woman in the blue dress and the man in the red hat. Use the half-cut figure at the left edge and the differently colored horizontal band at the lower left as edge markers. Fill in the rose vines between the tiers last, judging by the distance between the figures. 100 pieces is a good fit.