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Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor
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Constantine Fighting the Lion (detail)
From a twelve-piece set, plus baldachin with dossal, of the Story of Constantine
Design and cartoon by Pietro da Cortona, ca. 1636
Woven in the workshop of Giacomo della Riviera, Rome, 1636–37
Linen, silk, wool, and silver and gilt-metal wrapped thread; 16 ft. 4 7/8 in. x 9 ft. 7 in. (500 x 294 cm)
Weaver's mark in lower selvage at right, IAC.D.L.RIV
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1959 (1959-78-11)
See an image of the entire panel.
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This tapestry is one of the early products of the Barberini manufactory in Rome. It was conceived as one of several to complement a series that was originally designed by Peter Paul Rubens for Louis XIII of France. The Rubens set was begun in the Paris workshops in 1622 but in 1625, with only seven of the panels completed, the king presented them as a diplomatic gift to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who took the incomplete set back to Rome. There, he commissioned five more narrative panels and an en suite baldachin from Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669). Cortona's additions customized Rubens' set to the Roman context in which they were to be displayed—the great hall of the Palazzo Barberini alle Quattro Fontane—their subjects providing an allegorical commentary on the papacy of Urban VIII, Francesco Barberini's uncle.
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