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Lot Essay
This tapestry relates in colouring and overall execution to one depicting the Crucifixion in the Vatican that was woven in the San Michele workshop between 1730 and 1740 (A.M. de Strobel, 'Le Arazzerie Romane dal XVII al XIX Secolo', Quaderni de Storia dell'Arte, XXII, 1989, fig. 58).
WORKSHOP
After the closure of the Barberini tapestry atelier shortly after 1678, Rome remained without a major weaving enterprise to satisfy the ecclesiastical as well as aristocratic demand for tapestries. Pope Clement XI founded the next workshop in the Ospizio di San Michele in Ripa in 1710 and installed Jean Simonet from Paris to run the undertaking with a master weaver and two assistants. By 1717 Pietro Ferloni took over the workshop and led it until 1770, not only overseeing the weaving of large series, but also many small reproductions of paintings. Initially working from cartoons prepared by Andrea Procaccini, the workshop also frequently worked from paintings by famous artists such as Barocci, Reni, Guercino, Raphael and contemporary painters such as Maratta. These small tapestry panels, which appear to have been woven in relatively large numbers, served as gifts to visiting personalities or to departing ambassadors at the end of their missions.
(De Strobel, op. cit., pp. 51 - 61)
WORKSHOP
After the closure of the Barberini tapestry atelier shortly after 1678, Rome remained without a major weaving enterprise to satisfy the ecclesiastical as well as aristocratic demand for tapestries. Pope Clement XI founded the next workshop in the Ospizio di San Michele in Ripa in 1710 and installed Jean Simonet from Paris to run the undertaking with a master weaver and two assistants. By 1717 Pietro Ferloni took over the workshop and led it until 1770, not only overseeing the weaving of large series, but also many small reproductions of paintings. Initially working from cartoons prepared by Andrea Procaccini, the workshop also frequently worked from paintings by famous artists such as Barocci, Reni, Guercino, Raphael and contemporary painters such as Maratta. These small tapestry panels, which appear to have been woven in relatively large numbers, served as gifts to visiting personalities or to departing ambassadors at the end of their missions.
(De Strobel, op. cit., pp. 51 - 61)