Cyrillic script on a fictive plaque adorning a trompe l’oeil frame identifies “Rembrandt”, the artist of the painting this tapestry imitates. Large-scale figurative tapestries like this one had been woven in Saint Petersburg since at least 1716 when Peter the Great founded a tapestry weaving workshop under royal protection; by 1756, its weavers were directed by Jean Baptiste Rondet, who had worked at the great Manufacture Royale des Gobelins in Paris. This tapestry, woven during the reign of Empress Catherine II of Russia, was probably entirely the work of Russian weavers. It is part of a large group of technically proficient tapestries modelled after great paintings in the Russian royal collection; in this instance, though, the painting, acquired by Catherine II in 1768 and remaining in the Hermitage until 1930, is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.