Frederiksborg Palace.
The banqueting hall at Frederiksborg Palace burnt out during the great fire in 1859 and at the same time the tapestry series by Karel von Mander. Christian the IV had ordered the series, which were woven in Flanders and especially made for the hall. The series depicted scenes from the Kalmar war, from a guardroom and Christian the IV’s coronation procession through Copenhagen in 1596. The banqueting hall is even one of the rooms managed to be rebuilt almost according to its original look. The reconstruction took place from 1874 till 1880 and is especially due to the brewer I.C.Jacobsen, who granted large financial contributions. The tapestries have been rewoven according to the original sketches and with the same themes. The Frederiksborg tapestries belong to the few tapestries woven in Denmark with Danish tapestry weavers and the job took place from 1900 till 1928.

Overgård has drawn the cartoons for the tapestries and they are woven in that fashion that they more look like paintings than like classical tapestries. This is due to a special technique, where the yarn is mixed so you get a great number of shades and the colours gradually merge in to eachother.The tapestry weavers who had studied at Les Gobelins in Paris, also became specialised, so especially the faces appear very vividly.

You are met by a very overwhelming sight, when you enter the hall, it seems as if it is lined with tapestries. All the window recesses are covered with tapestries where the motif is continuos. Among other things it shows a suit of armour, a sceptre and a crown, On a broad bottom border, the whole hall round different sayings woven in, with edifying words and beautiful ornaments.

The big tapestries hang in the corner of the hall and under the trumpeter’s chair and show now as before : the Kalmar war, Christian the IV’s coronation procession and scenes from a guardroom. In some places on the wall the tapestries are kind of a frame,here the middle part is covered by gilt-leather tapestry upon which hangs portraits of the royal family.The banqueting hall is reserved Christian the IV and his descendants.

Frederiksborg palace