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Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor
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Table Carpet (detail)
Design based partly on prints attributed to Jan Snellinck the Elder and on a print after Michiel Coxcie
Woven in the northern Netherlands, 1652
Wool, silk, and some metal-wrapped thread; 6 ft. 7 1/2 in. x 9 ft. 2 5/8 in. (202 x 281 cm)
Unidentified weaver's initials, TCDB, at bottom right
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (BK-16395)
See an image of the entire panel.
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Tapestry-woven table carpets with floral designs, some in combination with biblical or mythological scenes, were produced in considerable numbers in seventeenth-century Holland. Typically, they depict picked flowers on stalks, often including newly introduced specimens, strewn over the surface. As such, they testify to the burgeoning commercial market for exotic flowers of all kinds that resulted in the speculative boom known as tulipomania, when the price of tulips soared during the 1630s before crashing in 1637 and bankrupting many investors. In addition to their visual appeal, these floral tapestries were relatively simple to weave and could thus be made by small, independent workshops who lacked the resources for more ambitious schemes. Contemporary paintings show carpets similar to this one in use in the homes of rich merchants and burghers of the day.
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