A LOUIS XIV BIBLICAL TAPESTRY

This tapestry forms part of a re-weaving of one of the most influential tapestry series. In 1515 pope Leo X, Giovanni de'Medici (d. 1521), commissioned the set from Raphael (d. 1520) for the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. The first set was woven by Pieter van Aelst, the leading merchant-entrepreneur at the time in Brussels, and when it was delivered just after Christmas 1519, it was universally proclaimed to be the most beautiful thing that had ever been made. Seven cartoons were subsequently purchased by Charles I, Prince of Wales, in 1623 and remain today at the British Museum, London.
The designs were essentially the first full application of the Italian Renaissance ideal to the tapestry medium. These tapestries were truly revolutionary in design and immediately influenced tapestry aesthetics, both in Italy and in Northern Europe. The set was not copied during van Aelst's lifetime, but shortly after his death in 1533 another set was woven for Francis I, King of France, and then in 1540 for Henry VIII, King of England. For a while the series was mainly woven in Brussels, but with the acquisition of the cartoons by Charles I, the tapestries were then woven at Mortlake and slowly disseminated to many different weaving centers. Gobelins are believed to have started the re-weaving of this series by 1667, but it is not entirely clear how many copies were made.