• Facets (new session)
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  • owl:sameAs
  • Inference Rule: asEquivalentb3sb3sifpfacetshttp://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#ldpoplwebskos-transvirtrdf-labelvirtrdf-urlNone
    

The tapestry was purchased for £3000 from the Spanish Art Gallery (Lionel Harris), Conduit Street, London, using funds from the bequest of Captain H B Murray. It had been in the collection of Lord Willoughby de Broke, at Compton Verney, and was sold at auction by Sothebys on 11 February 1921, lot 120. The tapestry had previously been on loan to the museum, from 1 August 1913 to 15 June 1914. Nothing more is known of its previous history. Historical significance: The tapestry is exquisitely and richly woven with gold thread used not only in the ornate haloes and garments but also in the foliage of trees and flowers. Other examples of tapestry-woven altar frontals of similar date (Cluny Museum, Thyssen-Bornemisza collection) show that tapestry-weaving of the highest quality was used for this purpose in the 15th century. It has been compared in style to a tapestry that was made for the Cathedral of Tournai in 1402, ordered from Pierre Fere of Arras, which shows the story of saints Piat and Eleutherius. It is also comparable with the Passion tapestries at St Mark's Basilica in Venice, from the 1420s, and the Passion tapestry at La Seo, Saragossa, Spain. From the late 14th century Arras was renowned for the quality of its tapestries, and many of the finest incorporated gold thread, the extensive use of which in figurative tapestry may have been an Arras innovation. From the 1390s most of the fine-quality tapestries purchased by the leading nobility appear to have been made in Arras.(references from Thomas Campbell, Tapestry in the Renaissance, New York, 2002, p.31).