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Lot Essay
The composition of the tapestry relates it closely to a small group of early Renaissance panels depicting 'The Triumph or The Glorification of Christ'. One magnificent panel, depicting ‘The Glorification’, is at the Musées d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels, while another is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and a third, known as ‘Christ the Judge on the Throne of Majesty’ is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see A.S. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, cats. 27-28, pp. 377-445).
Brussels was probably the most important centre of the tapestry industry at that time, benefitting from well-established guilds, entrepreneurial and competing merchants, skilled weaving-merchant workshops, powerful and wealthy patrons and a growing market. For centuries tapestries were associated with prestige, power and wealth, and the narrative series with status remained those of Biblical and Classical subjects, representing virtues that rulers should emulate. The visual richness represented by the complex patterns of clothing, so beautifully displayed in this tapestry, as well as the symbolism and allegory were appealing aspects of tapestries. The composition of this tapestry identifies it as transitional in style, retaining a large number of figures arranged in tiers close to the picture plane.
Brussels was probably the most important centre of the tapestry industry at that time, benefitting from well-established guilds, entrepreneurial and competing merchants, skilled weaving-merchant workshops, powerful and wealthy patrons and a growing market. For centuries tapestries were associated with prestige, power and wealth, and the narrative series with status remained those of Biblical and Classical subjects, representing virtues that rulers should emulate. The visual richness represented by the complex patterns of clothing, so beautifully displayed in this tapestry, as well as the symbolism and allegory were appealing aspects of tapestries. The composition of this tapestry identifies it as transitional in style, retaining a large number of figures arranged in tiers close to the picture plane.