From the Middle Ages until the late eighteenth century, the courts of Europe lavished vast resources on tapestries made of precious materials after designs by the leading artists of the day. This international loan exhibition, conceived as a sequel to "Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence" (spring 2002), is the first comprehensive survey of high-quality seventeenth-century European tapestry. Drawing from collections in more than fifteen countries, it presents forty rare tapestries made in Brussels, Delft, Flo... Read more

From the Middle Ages until the late eighteenth century, the courts of Europe lavished vast resources on tapestries made of precious materials after designs by the leading artists of the day. This international loan exhibition, conceived as a sequel to “Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence” (spring 2002), is the first comprehensive survey of high-quality seventeenth-century European tapestry. Drawing from collections in more than fifteen countries, it presents forty rare tapestries made in Brussels, Delft, Florence, London, Munich, Paris, and Rome between 1590 and 1720, along with approximately twenty-five drawings, engravings, and oil sketches. The exhibition investigates the stylistic and technical development of this prestigious figurative medium and explores the contributions of artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Simon Vouet, Charles Le Brun, Pietro da Cortona, and Giovanni Romanelli, as they responded to the challenges of the medium in unique and spectacular ways.