right:
The Unicorn is Found,
circa 1495-1505, the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Tapestry
is a form of textile art, woven on a vertical loom. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length (called the warp) and those parallel to the width (called the weft); the warp threads are set up under tension on a loom, and the weft thread is passed back and forth across part or all of the warps. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike cloth weaving where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous; the artisan interlaces each colored weft back and forth in its own small pattern area. It is a plain weft-faced weave having weft threads of different colours worked over portions of the warp to form the design. [1] [2]
Most weavers use a naturally based warp thread such as linen or cotton. The weft threads are usually wool or cotton, but may include silk, gold, silver, or other alternatives.
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TAPESTRY TICKETS
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Function
The success of decorative tapestry can be partially explained by its portability (
Le Corbusier once called tapestries "nomadic murals").
[3] Kings and
noblemen could roll up and transport tapestries from one residence to another. In
churches, they could be displayed on special occasions. Tapestries were also draped on the walls of
castles for insulation during winter, as well as for decorative display.
In the
Middle Ages and
renaissance, a rich tapestry panel woven with
symbolic
emblems,
mottoes, or
coats of arms called a
baldachin, canopy of state or cloth of state was hung behind and over a throne as a symbol of authority.
[4] The seat under such a canopy of state would normally be raised on a
dais.
The
iconography of most Western tapestries goes back to written sources, the
Bible and
Ovid's
Metamorphoses
being two popular choices. Apart from the
religious and
mythological images,
hunting scenes are the subject of many tapestries produced for indoor decoration.
Historical development
Tapestries have been used since at least
Hellenistic times. Samples of Greek tapestry have been found preserved in the desert of
Tarim Basin dating from the 3rd century BC.
Tapestry reached a new stage in
Europe in the early fourteenth century AD. The first wave of production originated in
Germany and
Switzerland. Over time, the craft expanded to
France and the
Netherlands.
In the 14th and 15th centuries,
Arras,
France was a thriving textile town. The industry specialised in fine
wool tapestries which were sold to decorate
palaces and
castles all over
Europe. Few of these tapestries survived the
French Revolution as hundreds were burnt to recover the gold thread that was often woven into them.
Arras
is still used to refer to a rich tapestry no matter where it was woven.
By the 16th century,
Flanders,the towns of Oudenaarde,
Brussels,
Geraardsbergen and Enghein had become the centre of European tapestry production. In the 17th century
Flemish tapestries were arguably the most important productions, with many specimens of this era still extant, demonstrating the intricate detail of pattern and colour.
In the 19th century,
William Morris resurrected the art of tapestry-making in the medieval style at
Merton Abbey.
Morris and Company [disambiguation needed] made successful series of tapestries for home and ecclesiatical uses, with figures based on cartoons by
Edward Burne-Jones.
Kilims and
Navajo rugs are also types of tapestry work.
Tapestries are still made at the factory of
Gobelins and a few other old European workshops, which also repair and restore old tapestries. The craft is also currently practiced by hobbyist
weavers.
Jacquard tapestries, color and the human eye
The term tapestry is also used to describe weft-faced textiles made on
Jacquard looms. Until the 1990s, tapestry
upholstery fabrics and reproductions of the famous tapestries of the
Middle Ages were the most well-known products of
Jacquard looms. Since the 1990s, tapestries have re-entered the world of fine art due to a revival of the computerised Jacquard process by artists such as
Chuck Close.
[5]
Typically, tapestries are translated from the original design via a process resembling paint-by-numbers: a
cartoon is divided into regions, each of which is assigned a solid color based on a standard palette. However, in Jacquard weaving, the repeating series of multicolored warp and weft threads can be used to create colors that are optically blended – i.e., the human eye apprehends the threads’ combination of values as a single color.
This method can be likened to
pointillism, a style of painting in which tiny dots or points placed in close proximity are optically blended as described above. In fact, pointillism originated from discoveries made in the tapestry medium: the style’s emergence in the 19th century can be traced to the influence of
Michel Eugène Chevreul, a French chemist responsible for developing the color wheel of primary and intermediary hues. Chevreul worked as the director of the dye works at Les Gobelins tapestry works in
Paris, where he noticed that the perceived color of a particular thread was influenced by its surrounding threads, a phenomenon he called “simultaneous contrast.” Chevreul’s work was a continuation of theories of color elaborated by
Leonardo da Vinci and
Goethe; in turn, his work influenced painters including
Eugène Delacroix and
Georges-Pierre Seurat.
The principles articulated by Chevreul also apply to contemporary television and computer displays, which use tiny dots of red, green and blue (
RGB) to render color.
[6]
Famous tapestries
- The Sampul tapestry, woollen wall hanging, 3rd-2nd century BC, Sampul, Ürümqi Xinjiang Museum.
- The Hestia Tapestry, 6th century, Egypt, Dumbarton Oaks Collection.
- The Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events surrounding the Battle of Hastings; note that this is not (strictly speaking) a tapestry, but is instead embroidery. In June 2007, the tapestry was listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.
- The Apocalypse Tapestry is the longest tapestry in the world, and depicts scenes from the Book of Revelation. It was woven between 1373 and 1382. Originally 140m (459ft), the surviving 100m are displayed in the Château d'Angers, in Angers.
- The six-part piece La Dame à la Licorne
(The Lady and the Unicorn), stored in l'Hôtel de Cluny, Paris.
- The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries, four Flemish tapestries dating from the mid-fifteenth century depict men and women in fashionable dress of the early fifteenth century hunting in a forest. The tapestries formerly belonged to the Duke of Devonshire and are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
- The Hunt of the Unicorn is a seven piece tapestry from 1495 to 1505, currently displayed at the The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
- The tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, designed by Raphael in 1515-16, for which the Raphael Cartoons, or painted designs, also survive.
- The Valois Tapestries are a cycle of 8 hangings depicting royal festivities in France in the 1560s and 1570s
- The New World Tapestry is a 267 feet long tapestry which depicts the colonisation of the Americas between 1583 and 1648, currently displayed at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol; note that this is not (strictly speaking) a tapestry, but is instead embroidery.
- The biggest collection of Flanders tapestry is in the Spanish royal collection, there is 8000 meters of historical tapestry from Flanders, as well as Spanish tapestries designed by Goya and others. There is a special museum in the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, and others are displayed in various historic buildings.
- The Pastoral Amusements, also known as Les Amusements Champêtres, a series of 8 Beauvais Tapestries designed by Jean Baptiste Oudry between 1720 and 1730.
Notes
- Mallet, Marla. "Basic Tribal and Village Weaves."
- Rivers, Shayne and Nick Umney. Conservation of Furniture. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003.
- Campbell, ''Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty'', p. 339-341
- "White Cube--Family and Others." Retrieved 2009-04-13.
- Stone, Nick. "Jacquard Weaving and the Magnolia Tapestry Project."
References
- Mallet, Marla. "Basic Tribal and Village Weaves."
- Rivers, Shayne and Nick Umney. Conservation of Furniture. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003.
- Campbell, ''Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty'', p. 339-341
- "White Cube--Family and Others." Retrieved 2009-04-13.
- Stone, Nick. "Jacquard Weaving and the Magnolia Tapestry Project."