tapestry

The tradition & historical record

Tapestry is a form of textile art which was traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to hang vertically on a wall (or sometimes in tents), or sometimes to lie horizontally over a piece of furniture such as a table or bed. Some periods made smaller pieces, often long and narrow and used as borders for other textiles. Most weavers use a natural warp thread, such as wool, linen, or cotton. The weft threads are usually wool or cotton but may include silk, gold, silver, or other alternatives. ¹

In late medieval Europe, tapestry was the grandest and most expensive medium for figurative images in two dimensions, and despite the rapid rise in importance of painting it retained this position in the eyes of many Renaissance patrons until at least the end of the 16th century, if not beyond. The European tradition continued to develop and reflect wider changes in artistic styles until the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, before being revived on a smaller scale in the 19th century. Technically, tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible. ¹

In English, "tapestry" has two senses, both of which apply to most of the works discussed here. Firstly it means work using the tapestry weaving technique described above and below, and secondly it means a rather large textile wall hanging with a figurative design. Some embroidered works, like the Bayeux Tapestry, meet the second definition but not the first. The situation is complicated by the French equivalent tapisserie also covering needlepoint work, which can lead to confusion, especially with pieces such as furniture covers, where both techniques are used. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest use in English was in a will of 1434, mentioning a "Lectum meum de tapstriwerke cum leonibus cum pelicano". They give a wide definition, covering: "A textile fabric decorated with designs of ornament or pictorial subjects, painted, embroidered, or woven in colours, used for wall hangings, curtains, covers for seats, ..." before mentioning "especially" those woven in a tapestry weave. The word tapestry derives from Old French tapisserie, from tapisser, meaning "to cover with heavy fabric, to carpet", in turn from tapis, "heavy fabric", via Latin tapes (gen: tapetis), which is the Latinisation of the Greek τάπης (tapēs; gen: τάπητος, tapētos), "carpet, rug". The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀲𐀟𐀊, ta-pe-ja, written in the Linear B syllabary. "Tapestry" was not the common English term until near the end of the classic period for them. If not just called "hangings" or "cloths", they were known as "arras", from the period when Arras was the leading production centre. ¹

Tapestry is a type of weaving. Various designs of looms can be used, including upright or "high-warp" looms, where the tapestry is stretched vertically in front of the weaver, or horizontal "low-warp" looms, which were usual in large medieval and Renaissance workshops, but later mostly used for smaller pieces. The weaver always works on the back of the piece, and is normally following a full-size drawn or painted cartoon, or possibly another tapestry; depending on the set up, this reverses (is a mirror image of) the tapestry image. The cartoon was generally created from a smaller modello, which in "industrial" workshops from at least the late Middle Ages on was produced by a professional artist, who often had little or no further involvement in the process. The cartoon was traced onto the warp lines by the weaver, and then placed where it could still be seen, sometimes through a mirror, when it hung behind the weaver. With low-warp looms the cartoon was usually cut into strips and placed beneath the weaving, where the weaver could see it through the "web" of threads. The Raphael Cartoons, which are very rare examples of surviving cartoons, were cut in this way. In European "industrial" tapestries the warp threads were normally wool, but in more artisanal settings, and older ones, linen was often used. The weft threads were wool, with silk, silver or gold thread used in the most expensive tapestries. Some famous designs, such as the Sistine Chapel tapestries and the Story of Abraham set probably first made for King Henry VIII, survive in versions with precious metals and other versions without. ¹

The success of decorative tapestry can be partially explained by its portability (Le Corbusier once called tapestries "nomadic murals"). The fully hand-woven tapestry form is more suitable for creating new figurative designs than other types of woven textile, and the looms could be much larger. Kings and noblemen could fold up and transport tapestries from one residence to another. Many kings had "wardrobe" departments with their own buildings devoted to the care, repair, and movement of tapestries, which were folded into large canvas bags and carried on carts. In churches, they were displayed on special occasions. Tapestries were also draped on the walls of palaces and castles for insulation during winter, as well as for decorative display. For special ceremonial processions such as coronations, royal entries and weddings, they would sometimes be displayed outside. The largest and best tapestries, designed for more public spaces in palaces, were only displayed on special occasions, reducing wear and fading. Presumably the smaller personal rooms were hung permanently. Many smaller pieces were made as covers for furniture or cushions, or curtains and bed hangings. Others, especially in the case of those made for patrons outside the top of the elite, were cut up and reused for such functions when they, or tapestries in general, came to seem old-fashioned. Bags, and sometimes clothing were other re-uses. The Beauvais Manufactory became rather a specialist in furniture upholstery, which enabled it to survive after the French Revolution when this became the main remaining market. ¹

Much is unclear about the early history of tapestry, as actual survivals are very rare, and literary mentions in Greek, Roman and other literature almost never give enough detail to establish that a tapestry technique is being described. From ancient Egypt, tapestry weave pieces using linen were found in the tombs of both Thutmose IV (d. 1391 or 1388 BC) and Tutankhamen (c. 1323 BC), the latter a glove and a robe. Pieces in wool, given a wide range of dates around two millennia ago, have been found in a cemetery at Sanpul (Shampula) and other sites near Khotan in the Tarim Basin. They appear to have been made in a variety of places, including the Hellenistic world. ¹

The Hestia Tapestry from Byzantine Egypt around 500–550, is a largely intact wool piece with many figures around the enthroned god… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Tapestry”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

tapestry is textile artwork, traditionally woven on a vertical loom using tapestry weaving techniques, sometimes embellished with embroidery or paint, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 53 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²