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Italian Tapestries and the Renaissance

So what do tapestries have to do with the Renaissance? When was the Italian Renaissance and why is it an important period in human history both in the political arena, financial world and in the world of art and tapestries?

The Italian Renaissance spanned about 300 years, but at its peak it really only spanned about 100 years from around 1460- 1570. During this very brief period in history, the Italian renaissance brought about enormous cultural, political, financial, artistic change in Europe. It marked the transition from the dark ages (medieval times) to early modern Europe.

Before the Italian Renaissance, medieval tapestries were originally adapted from illuminated manuscripts. Tapestries from the middle ages were primarily used by the church for moral instruction and for educating the illiterate masses. Wall hanging tapestries from the medieval period were two dimensional; everything was rendered on a single place. The background was equal to the foreground, and the tapestries had no depth or perspective. Wall tapestries from this period primarily worked three themes: wall tapestries depicted a story from the bible or allegorical in nature borrowing from antiquity in their moral instruction, or depicted the life of the nobleman, or depicted life of the peasant. All wall tapestries were hand woven tapestries in 100% wool which was readily available and were woven in Flanders and Belgium.

Tapestries entered the Italian Renaissance very late. The Medici's, a noble Italian family, were great patrons of the arts in Italy, supporting and promoting great artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Brunelleschi, and multitudes of other painters, writers, architects, sculptures, etc. Pope Leo X, a Medici, was elected as pope in 1513 and was a lover of all the arts that were blossoming in Italy. On visiting the Sistine Chapel and admiring the work of Michelangelo's ceiling, he decided that walls needed to be adorned with tapestry wall hangings. With no weaving mills in Italy, he had to turn to the Brussels wall tapestry weavers in Belgium. He commissioned the famous artist, Raphael, to produce a series of 10 tapestry drawings depicting the Acts of the Apostle. Raphael lavished all his knowledge of composition, anatomy depth and perspective, and drama in the most remarkable drawings ever made. These drawings were then sent to Brussels to produce 10 hand woven tapestries, each measuring 16ft x 21 ft. In a span of 5 short years, these hand woven tapestries entered Italy in 1518 and changed the course of tapestries forever.

In this single stroke of Italian genius, tapestries left the medieval world as a craft and entered the Italian Renaissance as an art form. European tapestries were forever changed, as artists and weavers across the European continent exposed to the Italian tapestries of Raphael, started to change their wall tapestry images from the flat 2 dimensional medieval like woven productions to art form in 3 dimensional perspective. Tapestries were the last art form to be changed by the Italian Renaissance. These wall tapestries of the Renaissance had four characteristics associated with them, different from medieval tapestries. These tapestries of the Renaissance were: three dimensional with depth and perspective, they were primarily propaganda vehicles (glorifying a king, prince or had a religious motif), they were often done in sets, where a story was spread out over several panels, most often the story line harkened back to classical antiquity.

Raphael who created the magnificent drawings for the Vatican tapestries died in 1520 and Pope Leo X just one year later in 1521. We can be truly grateful to both of these outstanding Renaissance figures who gave us the beauty that we know today as Italian tapestries.

About the Author

Heirloom European Tapestries helps you capture the right subject in the right colors with custom tapestries and helps you fill the empty walls with large tapestries.

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