Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence

Campbell, Thomas P., with contributions by Maryan W. Ainsworth, Rotraud Bauer, Pascal-François Bertrand, Iain Buchanan, Elizabeth Cleland, Guy Delmarcel, Nello Forti Grazzini, Maria Hennel-Bernasikowa, Lorraine Karafel, Lucia Meoni, Cecilia Paredes, Hillie Smit, and Andrea Stockhammer (2002)

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College Art Association Alfred H. Barr Jr. Book Award, Winner (2003)

Publication Details

Description

Tapestries were a principal aspect of the ostentatious "magnificence" used during the Renaissance by powerful religious and secular rulers to broadcast their wealth and their might. This sumptuously illustrated book presents the first major survey of tapestry production between 1460 and 1560, and it catalogues the first monographic loan exhibition of tapestries in the United States in twenty-five years. It highlights the finest tapestry cycles of the age as one of the greatest achievements of Renaissance art. Examples from many of the most important surviving set—which still dazzle today as they did five hundred years ago in the palaces and cathedrals of Europe—illustrate the contribution that the medium made to the art, liturgy, and propaganda of the time.

This study focuses on the stylistic evolution of tapestry design in the Netherlands beginning with the development by Netherlandish designers in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries of an aesthetic that emphasized narrative and decorative qualities. During the 1510s, 1520s, and 1530s, commissions by Pope Leo X and other Italian patrons resulted in the dispatch of tapestry cartoons by Italian artists—notably Raphael and his assistants—to Brussels, the main center of high-quality production, thus introducing Roman High Renaissance aesthetics to Northern tapestry design. Thereafter, Netherlandish artists like Bernaert van Orley and his followers melded this Italian influence with their local traditions of tapestry design to produce a rich aesthetic that was ideally suited to the medium. Smaller centers of tapestry production are also examined—particularly those set up under princely patronage in France (Fontainebleau) and Italy (Ferrara, Mantua, and Florence). Unrestrained by established practices of Netherlandish production, such artists as Tura, Mantegna, Bramantino, Bronzino, and Salviati invariably created tapestry designers that were much closer to the spirit of the Italian Renaissance than to those of their Northern counterparts. The strengths and distinctions of those contemporaneous developments and the cross-fertilization of ideas between northern Europe and Italy are fully explored in detailed essays and catalogue entries.

The secondary theme of this study is the important role that tapestry played in ceremonial and daily life and the extent to which the medium reflected the personal tastes and aspirations of its patrons. This book explores the circumstances in which these enormous works of art were conceived and the complex relationships that existed between contemporary patrons, the rich merchants who bankrolled the industry, and the artists and craftsmen who designed and wove the tapestries.

Many of the great tapestry cycles of the period are widely dispersed and challenging to photograph and thus little known outside a small scholarly community. In this book, the technical and artistic brilliance of these beautiful tapestries is illustrated in specially commissioned color photographs and detailed shots that reproduce them with a new vividness and immediacy.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword by Philippe de Montebello
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition

The Art and Magnificence of Renaissance Tapestries: Introduction

Tapestry Patronage in Northern Europe, 1380–1500

Merchants and Weavers in Northern Europe, 1380–1480

Artists and Cartoonists in Northern Europe, 1380–1480
Catalogue numbers 1–6

Patronage and Production in Italy, 1380–1510
Catalogue numbers 7–11

Netherlandish Production and the Rise of Brussels, 1480–1515
Catalogue numbers 12–17

The Acts of the Apostles Tapestries and Raphael's Cartoons
Catalogue numbers 18–25

Designs for the Papacy by the Raphael Workshop, 1517–30
Catalogue numbers 26–29

Patronage and Production in Northern Europe, 1520–60

Bernaert van Orley and the Revolution in Netherlandish Tapestry Design, 1515–41
Catalogue numbers 30–40

Italian Designs in Brussels, 1530–35
Catalogue numbers 41–44

Netherlandish Designers, 1530–60
Catalogue numbers 45–54

Tapestry Production in France, 1520–60
Catalogue numbers 55, 56

Tapestry Production in Italy, 1520–60
Catalogue numbers 57–63

Epilogue: The Netherlandish Tapestry Industry after 1560

Bibliography
Index
Photograph Credits

About the authors

Thomas P. Campbell is Associate Curator, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and Supervising Curator, Antonio Ratti Textile Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Exhibition

Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence

The first major loan exhibition of tapestries in the United States in twenty-five years, and the first extensive survey of tapestry production between 1460 and 1560, this exhibition highlights the great cycles of the late fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth centuries as the unsung glories of Renaissance art. Considered the art form of kings, tapestries were a principal part of the ostentatious "magnificence" expected of any powerful ruler, and courts and churches lavished vast sums on costly weavings in silk and gold thread from designs by leading artists such as Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Bronzino. The exhibition features some forty-one of the greatest tapestries of the period along with about sixteen preparatory drawings and designs drawn from thirty-three collections (including the Vatican, the Louvre, and the British Royal Collection) in twelve countries. The exhibition explores the stylistic and technical development of tapestry production in the Low Countries, France, and Italy from 1460 to 1560 and highlights the contributions that the medium made to the art, liturgy, and propaganda of the day.

The exhibition is organized chronologically with major emphasis given to the development of tapestry design in the Netherlands between 1500 and 1560 under the influence of designs and cartoons by Raphael and his followers, particularly Giovanni da Udine, Tommaso Vincidor, Giulo Romano, and Perino del Vaga. In addition to considering the achievement of these artists as tapestry designers in their own right, the exhibition investigates the influence their work had on Netherlandish designers, in particular Bernard van Orley, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, and Michiel Coxcie. Van Orley and his followers fused elements of the northern design tradition with Italianate innovations to produce an extraordinarily rich aesthetic that was ideally suited to the tapestry medium.

Smaller centers of tapestry production are also explored in this exhibition—notably those set up under princely patronage in France and Italy—with particular attention paid to the way in which local artists responded to the potential of the medium with widely divergent solutions. Unrestrained by established practices of Netherlandish production, the designs of artists like Tura, Mantegna, Bramantino, Bronzino, Salviati, and others were, invariably, much closer to the spirit of the Italian Renaissance than those of their northern counterparts. The exhibition focuses on the strengths and distinctions of these contemporaneous developments, and the cross-fertilization of ideas between Northern and Southern centers of production.

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