|
|
Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor
|
|
 
|
|
The Miraculous Draft of Fishes (detail)
From an eight-piece set of the Acts of the Apostles
From seven designs by Raphael, 1515–16, copied by Francis Clein with additions and new border designs between ca. 1625 and ca. 1639
Woven in the Mortlake workshop, Surrey, this piece ca. 1636–37; the set, late 1620s to early 1640s
Wool, silk, and gilt-metal-wrapped thread; 17 ft. 4 1/2 in. x 19 ft. 1/4 in. (530 x 580 cm)
Marks of England at bottom right, Sir James Palmer at lower right
Mobilier National, Paris (GMTT 16/4)
See an image of the entire panel.
|
|
|
The Acts of the Apostles cartoons were painted by Raphael for Pope Leo X about 1515–16 for tapestries woven in Brussels between 1517 and 1521, to hang in the Sistine Chapel. Remarkable for their revolutionary style and content, the designs were subsequently rewoven at least four times during the sixteenth century for notable patrons including Francis I and Henry VIII. During the 1610s, the Brussels workshops started to produce new versions of the design, but these were based on rather coarse copies of the designs, the original cartoons having been dispersed by this date. In 1623, Charles, Prince of Wales, managed to purchase seven of the original cartoons from an unidentified collection in Genoa, and between 1626 and the early 1640s these designs were reproduced a number of times, with great accuracy and in the finest materials, at the new Mortlake manufactory. This panel derives from the editio princeps of the series, made for Charles between 1626 and the early 1640s at the enormous price of about five hundred pounds for each piece. As such, it was the most expensive work of art that he commissioned.
|
|
|
Back to main page for this exhibition
Back to images from this exhibition
