Cultural Crossroads. Artistic Encounters between the Low Countries and Spain, 15th-17th Centuries. II- Woven Pictures

by Instituto Moll, Fondation Périer-D'Ieteren

Since 2020, the Moll Institute (Madrid) and the Périer-D’Ieteren Foundation (Brussels) have been conducting a research program aimed at identifying and studying the art that developed in the Low Countries from the 15^th to the 17^th centuries, which is still preserved in Spanish collections. As part of this collaboration, in 2023, a series of study sessions began to be held to share, deepen, and disseminate the work of specialists in the field. The 2023 study day took place in Brussels and focused on pictorial art. This time, the session will be dedicated to tapestries and will be held in Madrid.

Tapestries were top-tier luxury products that enjoyed tremendous success during the Early Modern period, both for their narrative and decorative possibilities. The quality of craftsmanship of these products by the workshops settled in the former Habsburg territories led to their popularity and demand growing to such an extent that leading artists were eventually enlisted to conceive the compositions that were transferred to the loom, further enhancing their interest and quality. The close relations that the Iberian Peninsula always had with the Low Countries facilitated the arrival of numerous series of tapestries to Spanish territory. Many of these works were commissioned by monarchs, important ecclesiastical figures, and nobles to the most prominent Flemish workshops. The different production centers, as well as the commissioning of series, the creation of cartoons, the various typologies of craftsmanship, their functions, and conservation, are topics we wish to address in this study session.

In Spain, highly significant collections of Flemish tapestries still exist, some of which are among the most prominent in the world, such as those housed by the National Heritage, which have been the subject of study by specialists in both specific catalogs and more general studies on the tapestries of the House of Austria. Likewise, exhibitions have played a prominent role in opening the door to new research. However, there are also numerous high-quality tapestries and series preserved in various dioceses of Spain, as well as in prominent noble families of the Iberian Peninsula, which are less known but open up a field of research of great interest.