tapestry

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tapestry hand-woven fabric of plain weave made without shuttle or drawboy, the design of weft threads being threaded into the warp with fingers or a bobbin. The name has been extended to cover a variety of heavy materials, such as imitation tapestries woven on Jacquard looms, tapestry carpets, and upholstery and drapery stuffs. True tapestries include various primitive textiles woven on the rudest of early looms, as well as the famous pictorial hangings of the Middle Ages.

Techniques

The techniques for high- and low-warp work ( haute-lisse and basse-lisse ) differ; both were used in the 14th cent. In a high-warp loom the threads are stretched vertically in front of the weaver, and the lisses or loops which raise the alternate threads to make the shed are lifted by hand; in low-warp work, the warp threads are horizontal, and the lisses are moved by means of a foot treadle. The strong warp threads of wool or linen may vary from 10 to 30 in an inch (3 to 12 per cm), but are ordinarily fewer than 20 (8 per cm). The soft, full weft threads of wool, silk, or metal entirely cover the warp, which remains apparent in the form of ribs.

In true tapestry, the front and back surfaces are alike, except that portions of the design of the same color are connected by a loose thread that is left hanging at the back. The different colors of the design, being worked in separately in blocks or patches, leave little slits between, which are afterward sewn up. All are woven with the back to the weaver, who sees nothing of his work until it is finished, unless he uses a mirror to reflect it. A cartoon or painting on linen or paper, often by a noted artist, is provided for the weaver to copy. Themes for medieval hangings were drawn from ancient legends, mythology, allegory, history, religion, chivalry, and sport.

History

Antique specimens of tapestry weaving include a few surviving from Egypt of 1500 BC and Coptic tapestries made from the 4th to 8th cent. AD The Incas of Peru produced beautiful specimens, some of which date back to the pre-Columbian era. Ancient Chinese tapestries, k'o ssu, were made of light, thin silks, often interwoven with gold thread. Allusions in early Greek poetry and paintings on Greek vases show that tapestry weaving was an important household industry.

The history of tapestry weaving is continuous. In the 5th cent. AD and in the centuries immediately afterward, monasteries and convents were the centers of the craft. Woolen tapestries appeared early in Europe. A few fragments woven in this material in the 10th or 11th cent. are still preserved. (The so-called Bayeux tapestry was actually embroidered.) At Arras, early in the 14th cent., the first great French weaving was done, in wool. Soon Brussels achieved prominence and remained important through the 17th cent., until the rise of the Gobelins works at Paris.

By the 15th cent., tapestry weaving had reached a high degree of perfection, and from this century date many great Gothic sets rich with gold thread. A fine specimen is the set of Burgundian Sacraments; a late 15th-century example of a verdure background is the Lady and the Unicorn set (Musée de Cluny). An example of the Renaissance period is the widely acclaimed set, the Acts of the Apostles, from the cartoons of Raphael. Fine weaving was done at Beauvais in the mid-17th cent. Weavers at Aubusson, France, began in the 16th cent. to make an inferior textile that was gradually improved. The baroque style dominated the 17th cent.; the rococo and classical styles appeared in the 18th cent. Fine examples were woven from the cartoons of François Boucher, who worked both for the Beauvais and the Gobelins looms.

In England much tapestry, known as Arras, was used before any was manufactured there. In the 16th cent. William Sheldon set up works in Warwickshire. An establishment in imitation of the Gobelins was opened at Mortlake in 1619 and employed Flemish weavers. In 1881, William Morris began weaving at Merton; his friend Edward Burne-Jones designed some of Morris's series. In 1893 tapestry looms were set up in New York City. Some interesting 20th-century tapestries have been woven in France from cartoons by Rouault, Braque, Lurçat, Picasso, and Calder.

Important public collections in the United States that contain fine examples of tapestry weaving are those in the Metropolitan Museum (including the magnificent Hunt of the Unicorn series at the Cloisters) and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Bibliography

See M. Jarry, World Tapestry (1969); A. Pearson, Complete Book of Tapestry Weaving (1984); T. P. Campbell, Tapestry in the Renaissance (2002).

tapestry. A term that is often loosely applied to any heavy ornamental fabric used as a wall hanging but which more correctly signifies a textile woven on a loom with two directions of thread, running respectively top to bottom (warps) and side to side (wefts). The warps are plain backing threads, and the design is created by weaving the wefts alternately over and under them according to the requirements of colour; the image is thus an integral part of the material rather than something superimposed on it, as in embroidery. Although tapestries are most often used for wall hangings, they have also been employed in other ways, notably as upholstery fabrics. The usual materials for the warps are wool, linen, or hemp, and wool is also the most common material for the wefts, although silks and even silver and gold threads have been used in particularly luxurious examples. The technical fineness of a tapestry is expressed by the number of wefts to the centimetre; an average of ten per centimetre is fairly coarse, while thirty is considered refined (although much denser concentrations are sometimes found). Usually the weaver works from a full-sized coloured cartoon (Raphael, Rubens, and Goya are among the celebrated artists who have produced such designs).

Tapestry was known in the ancient world, but the early history of the subject is obscure. It is not until the 14th century that a continuous tradition can be traced, but from then tapestries were an essential part of medieval interior decoration, particularly in northern Europe (where in addition to their aesthetic purpose they performed the practical function of keeping out draughts). Among the most famous tapestries of the Middle Ages are a vast series on the Apocalypse (designed by Jean Bondol) made in 1373–82 for Louis I, Duke of Anjou (brother of Charles V of France), and now displayed in a special gallery in the castle at Angers, and an enchanting series on the Lady and the Unicorn (c.1490–1500, Mus. du Moyen Age, Paris). France has the richest tradition in the art, with particularly important factories at Arras, Aubusson, Beauvais, and Paris (see Gobelins), but in the 15th and 16th centuries Flanders led the way for a time, with Tournai and then Brussels being major centres of production. Most other European countries have also produced tapestries, the most famous English manufactory being the Mortlake Tapestry Factory (1619–1703), at Mortlake in Surrey, in which Charles I (see Royal Collection) took a close interest; the factory wove several sets of tapestries from Raphael's cartoons of the Acts of the Apostles, which Charles bought in 1623.

Tapestries continued to be popular until well into the 18th century, but they then began to give way to cheaper coverings such as wallpaper. However, there was a revival of interest in the late 19th century, for example in the work of William Morris, and this continued in the 20th century. At the Bauhaus, for example, tapestry design was part of the curriculum, and numerous modern artists have done impressive work in the medium, including Braque, Matisse, Picasso, and Graham Sutherland, whose huge Christ in Glory (1952–62) in Coventry Cathedral, woven at Aubusson, is probably the most famous tapestry of the 20th century.

tap·es·try / ˈtapistrē/ • n. (pl. -tries) a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored weft threads or by embroidering on canvas, used as a wall hanging or furniture covering. ∎ fig. used in reference to an intricate or complex combination of things or sequence of events: a tapestry of cultures, races, and customs. DERIVATIVES: tap·es·tried adj.

tapestry Hand-woven, plain-weave fabric. Used for wall decoration and hangings, tapestry design is a very ancient craft and a few fragments survive from 15th-century bc Egypt. The first great French woollen tapestry came from Arras in the 14th century ad. The most famous designs originated from the Gobelins factory, Paris. Some 20th-century textile artists use tapestry techniques in their work.

tapestry XV. alt. of †tapisery, †tapecery (XV) — (O)F. tapisserie, f. tapissier tapestry-worker, or tapisser cover with carpet, f. tapis carpet, cloth :- Rom. *tappētium, for late L. tapētium — Gr. tapḗtion, dim. of tápēs, -ēt- tapestry.

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