Flemish Renaissance Tapestry

From the Story of “Alexander the Great”

Brussels 16th Century

160 × 228 cm

Large scale figurative tapestries came into prevalence in the 14th century and were predominately produced in Flanders, Brussels being the capital,  where there was a flourishing textile industry that was a primary factor in the expansive prosperity of the country, making it one of the richest and most urbanized parts of Europe through trading, and the weaving of imported English wool into cloth for both domestic use and export. As a consequence, a very sophisticated culture developed, with impressive achievements in the arts and architecture, as well as with the designing and weaving of large scale anecdotal tapestries.

The subjects of Medieval and Renaissance tapestry designs were exclusively taken from ancient mythology, the Bible, or the heroic episodes from the lives of contemporary figures of royalty or of military prowess. There is almost an infinite compendium of the many exploits, tales, and histories of the isolated episodes portrayed in tapestries involving these three areas of cultural phenonmena.

Without exception all were allegorical and purposefully fixated on a visual extravagance that projected the power and grandeur of the nobility and the aristocrats that commissioned these often monumental works.   

Exclusively woven in sets, each individual composition displayed an isolated episode related to the principal celebrated protagonist.

The present fragmented example appears to be from one of a series dedicated to the exploits of Alexander the Great. With the forlorn Turkic appearing captives and the central figure “mediator” all depicted in stylized contemporary aristocratic dress, Alexander is shown wearing a Roman battle cuirass and Eagle and plumed helmet and a laurel leaf chaplet signifying kingship. Very finely woven, with all of the principal figures being actual human size, this rare and notable fragmented example of Flemish Renaissance tapestry mastery is without question the central subject in what was originally approximately 6 to 8m long and 4.5 to 5m in height.

Anthony Foster