Antique Tapestries

In the Middle Ages, tapestries were considered the most lavish form of interior decoration. They were carried between residences by the nobility and set out in churches for special festivals. The spread of the International Gothic style helped to produce the great tapestries that hung on the walls of the vast rooms of princely homes, brightening them up with tales from the courtly literature of the time. The major tapestry workshops were in France (Angers and Paris) and Flanders (Arras, Tournai, and Brussels). In the second half of the 14th century, the Duke of Anjou commissioned the great series of the Apocalypse for Angers Cathedral, designed by the miniaturist Jean Bondol and woven in the workshop of Nicolas Bataille.

As well as their iconographic accuracy, these tapestries were important for the strict links of their art with miniature and contemporary painting.

Tapestries