The media these days is packed full of doom and gloom – wars, economy, stock market place, tsunamis, earthquakes, hunger, worldwide warming – the list is endless. But how various is it currently compared to 700 years ago, 400 years ago or 200 years ago? We feel we are in the middle of major maelstrom, but we find that history consistently repeats itself and that the ongoing events of the globe are documented in complete living colour in woven tapestries.
Going back in time to the medieval period, a period recognized as the dark ages, we come upon a series of well-known hand woven tapestries recognized as the Apocalypse series. In fact this wall tapestry, woven in 1373 was originally one continuous piece measuring 459 feet. This incredible wall hanging tapestry documented the events of the 1300’s – its wars, famine, failed harvests due to main climatic changes and of course the human condition. Additionally this tapestry wall hanging predicted the demise of the human race with the four horses of the apocalypse. What remains now of this hand woven tapestry is about 110 feet in segments and preserved at the castle in Angers in France.
In among the dark ages and the Italian renaissance, we have lots of tapestries depicting battle scenes and wars, along with scenes of the nobility at leisure in their gardens and peasants harvesting. The globe had not come to an end, as outlined in the Apocalypse tapestries, and so war scenes became interspersed with wall tapestries depicting ordinary life, and of course additional inspirational tapestries of saints and saintliness that had been commissioned by the church.
Moving on to the Italian Renaissance we enter an age of enlightenment – a returning back to the classical Greek period. European tapestries had entered a new era. Inspired by the Sistine Chapel, Pope Leo X decided the only complimentary art to this magnificent piece of function, would have to be hand woven tapestries. Commissioning the famous painter Raphael to produce cartoons (the art operate) for a series of 10 significant tapestries depicting the Acts of the Apostles, they have been subsequently created into woven tapestries remains and to this day stay 1 of the wonders of the globe in the art. Coming out of the dark ages, these hand woven tapestries inspired scholars, historians, artists, noblemen, and the ordinary man to improved himself and participate in a much more peaceful and attractive globe.
By the time we enter the late 1600’s by means of to the 1800’s, we find that tapestry wall hangings now depict the lives of ordinary individuals and the nobility alike. For instance, in French tapestries, chateaux scenes are depicted representing 12 months of the year – a various chateau for each and every month. In https://tripstartapestries.com/ see scenes in the Months of Lucas series showing daily life in 12 separate hand woven tapestries, each representing an individual month. Tapestries had taken on a liveliness, a joie de vivre, a back to nature and interest in the joys of living, loving and playing.
By the 19th century, in wall tapestries, the connection to the previous medieval period is once again employed with the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris. The decorative arts develop into the concentrate of interest and some of the most magnificent stained glass perform, paintings and of course hand woven tapestries are produced by the guild of Morris & Co, situated in England. Even though wars, poverty, economic events and organic disasters continue to take place, this was Victorian England, and the planet looked promising.
Our connection to the world via time depicted in tapestries remains. How we would convey our present events in a wall hanging tapestry would be a curious query. Maybe this is a question for the art world, our economists, our governments or our churches. Regardless, tapestries give us the benefit of recognizing that history does repeat itself and that the current globe events are not new.