TAPESTRY, A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

What is a tapestry? The word has taken on several meanings in the modern era, from the traditional painting-like weaves we associate with historical art, to a piece of geometrically printed fabric often hung on the walls of dorm rooms and starter apartments. Historically and academically, a tapestry has a very specific destination. Thomas P. Campbell, an art historian with a particular interest in European tapestry, writes that the term “designates a figurative weft-faced textile woven by hand on a loom.” Figurative indicates that the textile focuses on representations of people, animals, architectural elements, or any combination of the three. This type of design makes tapestries effective storytelling tools, more closely resembling a painting than a piece of fabric. Figurative is an easy descriptor for a layman to understand. Weft facing? Much less so.

To understand what that term means, one first needs to understand how a tapestry is made. As Campbell states, it’s crafted by hand using a loom - a machine, typically made primarily of wood, that helps a weaver stretch and maneuver threads into a predetermined pattern. There are two sets of threads, the warp (which acts as a sort of support system or scaffolding for the design) and the weft (threads woven in between the warp to create the desired design). Within this overall framework, there are two different varieties: high-warp and low-warp. The former has a vertical warp that moves forward, the latter with a horizontal one that moves backward. The differences between these two types of looms alter the way weaver operates the loom and are better suited to different varieties of tapestry. When a tapestry is described as a weft facing textile, it means that the warp threads are almost entirely covered and the overall design is created from the weft.

In his book, Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor, Campbell explains that creating a tapestry is a collaborative process, involving not only the artisans that physically craft the textile, but also the artists who craft the final design that makes it to the loom. Because of their high price tag, tapestries were typically the domain of the wealthy and were often commissioned to commemorate important events in the life of the patron and or as gifts meant to curry favor amongst elites. Artists were tasked with designing these elaborate tapestries, drawing on historical and religious influences to tell stories of faith, leadership, and family. These paper designs were often referred to as “cartoons” and helped weavers to keep their place as they worked. This cartoon is either placed underneath the loom or hung up, depending on the type of loom being used. Once this design has been finalized, the weaving process can begin.

The size of the team and time needed varied, depending on a variety of factors, including the size of tapestry, the materials used, and the number of tapestries being created. Campbell estimates that a single coarse tapestry made exclusively of wool (measuring approximately five yards high by eight yards wide) would take a team of five approximately eight months to complete. The finer the materials used, the finer the warp and weft count, which ultimately caused production times to rise even further. By the time a set as ambitious as The History of Constantine was completed, it had passed through the hands of approximately 60 weavers, each of whom had devoted hundreds of hours to its creation. While 17^th  century weavers typically did not design the tapestries they were tasked with manufacturing, their labor may be considered the single most important part of bringing a commission to fruition. 

The cartoon (paper design) used for the creation of Bjørn Nørgaard's tapestry Late Glücksborgs, currently on display in Nørgaard's native Denmark. This cartoon, and the tapestry it helped create, are of similar dimensions to The History of Constantine and help us conceptualize the actual scale of the cartoons needed to create tapestries of this large size. While difficult to tell from a distance, up close the texture of the tapestry can be clearly distinguished from that of the corresponding cartoon, despite their identical design.

PHOTO CREDIT: Talia Pugliese