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Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor
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Christ before Herod (detail)
From a ten-piece set, including three overdoors, of the Passion of Christ
Design and cartoon for the main scene by Ludovico Cardi, called il Cigoli, between December 28, 1598, and September 22, 1599
Design and cartoon for the border by Alessandro Allori, between August 12, 1589, and August 22, 1591
Woven on a low-warp loom in the Medici manufactory under the direction of Guasparri Papini, Florence, before February 27, 1601
Silk and gilt-metal-wrapped thread; 12 ft. 2 1/8 in. x 12 ft. 3 5/8 in. (371 x 375 cm)
Deposito Arazzi della Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (Arazzi no. 517)
See an image of the entire panel.
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Christ before Herod was woven from a cartoon by Ludovico Cardi, called il Cigoli (1559–1613), between 1598 and 1601. The model was made to complement four other scenes of the Passion of Christ that had been designed by Alessandro Allori (1535–1607) between 1589 and 1592 and executed in the Florentine workshop of Guasparri Papini (ca. 1540–1621) during the intervening years. The lapse of almost ten years before Cigoli received the commission was due to the shortage of weavers in Florence who specialized in working with fine silk and gold. The set may originally have been conceived for the Sistine Chapel, but by as early as 1592 the decision to keep it in Florence had been made, and it was allocated instead to the Palazzo Pitti. In contrast to the scenes made after Allori's designs, Christ before Herod manifests a new sense of drama and theatricality, reflecting the important contribution that Cigoli was then making to the development of a Baroque sensibility in Florentine painting.
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