The media nowadays is packed complete of doom and gloom – wars, economy, stock marketplace, tsunamis, earthquakes, hunger, international warming – the list is endless. But how distinct is it right now compared to 700 years ago, 400 years ago or 200 years ago? We think we are in the middle of key maelstrom, but we uncover that history constantly repeats itself and that the ongoing events of the globe are documented in full living color in woven tapestries.
Going back in www.tripstartapestries.com to the medieval period, a period identified as the dark ages, we come upon a series of renowned hand woven tapestries recognized as the Apocalypse series. In reality this wall tapestry, woven in 1373 was originally 1 continuous piece measuring 459 feet. This extraordinary wall hanging tapestry documented the events of the 1300’s – its wars, famine, failed harvests due to important climatic alterations and of course the human situation. Furthermore this tapestry wall hanging predicted the demise of the human race with the 4 horses of the apocalypse. What remains today of this hand woven tapestry is about 110 feet in segments and preserved at the castle in Angers in France.
In amongst 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 finish, as outlined in the Apocalypse tapestries, and so war scenes became interspersed with wall tapestries depicting ordinary life, and of course extra inspirational tapestries of saints and saintliness that have 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 operate, would have to be hand woven tapestries. Commissioning the famous painter Raphael to build cartoons (the art perform) for a series of ten large tapestries depicting the Acts of the Apostles, they had been subsequently produced into woven tapestries remains and to this day remain one particular 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 much better himself and participate in a much more peaceful and wonderful globe.
By the time we enter the late 1600’s through to the 1800’s, we obtain that tapestry wall hangings now depict the lives of ordinary folks and the nobility alike. For example, in French tapestries, chateaux scenes are depicted representing 12 months of the year – a distinct chateau for each month. In Italian tapestries we see scenes in the Months of Lucas series displaying each day life in 12 separate hand woven tapestries, every representing an person 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 past medieval period is when again employed with the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris. The decorative arts come to be the concentrate of interest and some of the most magnificent stained glass perform, paintings and of course hand woven tapestries are developed by the guild of Morris & Co, located in England. When wars, poverty, economic events and all-natural disasters continue to occur, this was Victorian England, and the world looked promising.
Our connection to the world via time depicted in tapestries remains. How we would convey our existing events in a wall hanging tapestry would be a curious query. Perhaps this is a question for the art globe, our economists, our governments or our churches. Regardless, tapestries give us the advantage of recognizing that history does repeat itself and that the existing planet events are not new.