How a practical draft protection solution turned into an expensive piece of art: Tapestry

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Tapestries, or rather tapestries, arose because they made it possible to protect themselves from the cold and drafts. But this purely practical purpose cannot explain the essence of the tapestry, because most of such products were in the past real objects of art - objects of extremely valuable and expensive. How did these wall hangings get such a reputation?

Tapestries of antiquity and traditions adopted by Europeans

What is commonly called tapestry has a more accurate name - tapestry. This is a hand-woven, lint-free carpet with a pattern on one side - the front side - designed to decorate the wall. A trellis is created by cross-weaving threads of different colors using a special device - a weft. The threads form both the pattern and the very fabric of the carpet.

The prototypes of tapestries existed in the ancient world, and from the first millennium of the new era, the development of this type of weaving began, the inhabitants of Egypt adopted the art of weaving carpets from the peoples of Mesopotamia, and then they themselves achieved considerable success in this matter. The heyday of the tapestry craft fell on the IV-VII centuries; Egyptian Copts made such carpets using linen warp and woolen threads to create patterns and ornaments. Apparently, tapestries were also created in the ancient world.

The subjects for such woven "paintings" were ancient myths, images of flowers and fruits, and later - biblical legends. The east also had its own traditions of weaving tapestries; in China, from the third century BC, carpets were woven using silk threads, and then this art was adopted by the Japanese.

The reasons why the tapestry craft in general arose are related to the aesthetic needs of people of past centuries, and with practical considerations - after all, a woven carpet served as a good protection from the cold in a room. Therefore, different cultures came to the traditions of weaving tapestries, for example, in South America this type of weaving was popular for centuries before the arrival of Europeans - this is evidenced by the finds made in burials. Human hair was used to create certain shades of the pattern. Women were engaged in weaving carpets, and since the 6th century, weaving looms were used for this work.

European tapestries and tapestries proper

Europe adopted the traditions of tapestry production from the eastern tribes, this happened during the Crusades, which began in the 11th century. Trophy carpets, and then made by Europeans, were hung on the walls in order to protect the premises from the penetrating cold, and to give the halls an elegant, solemn look. In addition, tapestries were used as partitions, they were used to decorate temples, they were used as decorations for festive church processions. The tapestry from the Church of St. Gereon in Cologne is considered the first created in Europe.

Of course, in the first centuries, these carpets showed mainly stories from biblical legends. In the XIV century, the "Angersky Apocalypse" was created, a series of tapestries that contained scenes from the "Revelations of John the Theologian". It was created for King Louis I. In general, in those days, and for a long time afterwards, it was the kings and the church who ordered the tapestries - for the rest of them, buying such a decoration for home was not at all a financial challenge. For a long time, tapestries-tapestries were considered a part of luxurious royal residences, especially since the weaving technique became more complicated with the development of the craft.

The criterion for the quality of the tapestry was the weaving density, which was constantly growing, from 5 warp threads per 1 centimeter in the Middle Ages to 16 threads in the 19th century. High-density tapestries made it possible to achieve almost the same visual effect as a painting. At first, the masters used threads of six different colors, but gradually the number of shades increased, reaching almost nine hundred by the end of the 18th century.

At first, Flanders was the center of tapestry art; the masters of the French Arras began to use gold and silver threads in their work, and in the 17th century, the active development of other carpet weaving workshops began. There were factories in France before, but on a small scale, the main suppliers of tapestries for the royal court were the Flemings. By his decree, King Henry IV founded a factory in Paris, and it was housed in a building owned by the Gobelin family, where the wool dyer Gilles Tapestry used to work. From the moment of the issuance of the corresponding royal patent to the Tapestry Manufactory - namely from 1607 - the history of the tapestry itself - the tapestries created at this enterprise - begins.

To organize the work, the king summoned two Flemings to Paris - Marc de Comance and François de la Planche, they were awarded titles of nobility, and in addition - workshops, equipment and substantial subsidies: Henry really wanted the French to learn how to make the world's best tapestries. The importation of carpets from abroad was prohibited.

Tapestries as an art form that rivaled painting

The works of the manufactory went uphill, the craftsmen received orders from the royal court, and they were performed not only by the weavers themselves, but also by the artists who prepared sketches for the tapestries - cardboard. Often the great masters of painting took up the work of the cartoner. In the second half of the 17th century, the manufactory was headed by the most influential French artist Charles Lebrun, and besides him, Jacob Jordaens, Rubens, Simon Vouet created sketches for tapestries. Weaving techniques were improved, new creative techniques arose, and tapestries were already seriously competing with painting, and in price they significantly outperformed the paintings of the most famous artists.

Following the French, manufactories began to be created in other European countries, and at the beginning of the 18th century, the art of creating tapestries began to be mastered in Russia. For this, Peter I brought several masters of the Tapestry manufactory to the country and founded, in turn, in Yekateringof the St. Petersburg Tapestry Manufactory, which will remain the only large domestic tapestry manufacturing enterprise. Foreigners made tapestries and trained apprentices at the same time. Paintings from the imperial collections were often used as cardboards.

In total, 205 tapestries were created by the Petersburg Manufactory, in 1858 it was closed due to the fact that it was suffering constant losses. However, it was not only Russian carpet weaving that experienced the crisis.

The tapestry was given new life by the artist Jean Lursa, a reformer of tapestry art, who in the first half of the last century developed new principles for creating woven napless carpets, relying on medieval traditions and somewhat returning to the foundations of the craft. He proceeded from the fact that tapestries should not substitute for paintings, that this art form is much closer to architecture, because tapestries “dress part of the building”. He returned the weaving structure to medieval standards, the products were made much faster and the cost of their production was significantly reduced.

More about Jean Lurs: here.