In 1668, King Louis XIV of France commissioned the Paris-based Savonnerie manufactory to create the largest carpet ever woven. Composed of 92 individual pieces, the carpet was intended to cover the full span of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre, measuring 440 meters, six times the length of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Not only was it a bold and unprecedented undertaking, but a unique chapter in the history of art.
The first ever exhibition about the Savonnerie in the United States, A King’s Carpet sheds new light on The Met’s three carpets made as part of this ambitious scheme. Held in the iconic Wrightsman Galleries, it will explore the tumultuous history of these Baroque masterpieces from their conception and the harsh realities of their production to their dispersal after the French Revolution.
A project of unheard-of scale, the weaving of the 92 carpets necessitated the establishment of massive workshops and an expendable workforce of orphans and adolescents with sharp eyesight and nimble fingers. Woven over 20 years, the carpets were never rolled out in the space for which they were intended, Louis XIV having turned his attention away from the Louvre to Versailles. During the Revolution, many were stripped of their royal emblems or sold, some eventually finding new homes with prominent American collectors such as J. P. Morgan and Alva Vanderbilt.
This exhibition will present four complete carpets along with a selection of fragments, attesting to the scheme’s segmentation and dispersal. In addition, visitors will be able to observe textile conservators at work in an in-gallery temporary conservation studio as they repair and strengthen one of these monumental textiles.
The exhibition is made possible in part by Hubert and Mireille Goldschmidt.