The Toilet of the Princess (from a pair of Indo-Chinese scenes) 1690–1715 Attributed to the workshop of John Vanderbank the Elder Flemish During his tenure as governor of the Dutch-controlled area of Brazil, Johan Maurits (1604–1679) commissioned two artists in his service to record the area’s wildlife and inhabitants. The resulting works were translated into tapestries for him by 1678; he found them so impressively lifelike that he wrote, "it would be possible, by the tapestries, to see Brazil without crossing the ocean."¹ In contrast, the first English tapestries depicting exotic and foreign

The Toilet of the Princess (from a pair of Indo-Chinese scenes) 1690–1715 Attributed to the workshop of John Vanderbank the Elder Flemish During his tenure as governor of the Dutch-controlled area of Brazil, Johan Maurits (1604–1679) commissioned two artists in his service to record the area’s wildlife and inhabitants. The resulting works were translated into tapestries for him by 1678; he found them so impressively lifelike that he wrote, "it would be possible, by the tapestries, to see Brazil without crossing the ocean."¹ In contrast, the first English tapestries depicting exotic and foreign scenes were inventive compilations of motifs from the Far East. John Vanderbank, weaver in London, is recorded as having supplied nine pieces in the "Indian Manner" for the decoration of Kensington Palace in the 1690s.² These tapestries are thought to have been of the same type as the present hanging, and if this theory is correct, they would have complemented the vast collection of Asian porcelain and Dutch Delft ceramics of Queen Mary II (1662–1694). A print by Daniel Marot the Elder suggests the appearance of such a collection juxtaposed with wall decoration of either Asian lacquer panels or some European imitation.³ The Toilet of the Princess is one of two Indo-Chinese tapestry scenes in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection. As many as fifty variations on these compositions of exotic characters on little islands floating on plain backgrounds were made in England, attesting to their popularity.⁴ These tapestries were made in sets of varying dimensions and numbers of panels, depending on the room for which they were intended. Placing scattered vignettes against a dark background was a concept clearly inspired by the lacquer panels that were being imported to Europe from Japan and China. The diarist John Evelyn mentioned seeing an inventive use of lacquer panels in 1682, writing, "in the hall are contrivences of Japan Skreens, instead of wainscot;.. The landski

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