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Alternate View
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Praetexta, ca. 1450–75
German (Cologne)
Tapestry weave, wool, silk, linen, and metallic threads; 6 3/8 x 63 3/4 in. (16.2 x 161.9 cm)
The Cloisters Collection, 1999 (1999.392a)
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Description
This rare surviving example of a complete praetexta, intended to hang just below the altar table above the frontal, is in remarkable condition. The tapestry-woven panel retains its original color, its original woven edges (selvages) at top and bottom, and the starting and end points of the weaving, which were more commonly trimmed off. Most extraordinarily, the tapestry appears never to have been washed. It has kept its original stiffness and surface integrity, which make it one of the best-preserved medieval tapestries in the Museum's large collection.
Cologne was known in the fifteenth century as a center for pattern-woven orphreys, but such ornamental bands were typically narrow, woven in a compound twill called samit, and their pictorial details were frequently enhanced with embroidery. This praetexta features a Latin inscription, in white Gothic letters against a blue-green background, which reads Ave regina celorum mater regis angeloru[m] (Hail, Queen of Heaven, Mother of the King of the Angels). A flowering vine surrounds the inscription, and an image of the standing Virgin and child appears at the center, between the words celorum and mater.
(Entry written by Peter Barnet)
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