"Verdure" tapestry from the early 18th century.
Hand-woven in wool and silk.
Lined back.
In fair condition due to age and use. Some repairs and restorations in keeping with age. Colours faded. Fragile areas. Without border.
Measurements: 245 x 130 cm.
Landscape tapestry with birds in a lush environment with waterfall and architecture on a rolling hillside, mainly in shades of green, blue and brown-gray. These types of scenes are known as verdure or millefleur, a style characterized by the use of a large number of plants or flowers of different sizes. In many occasions these are arranged in the lower zone, and are placed in an ascending way creating a vegetation scenery; many other times they show scenes of realistic character whose protagonist is the landscape. It is a very common style in Europe, which began to develop in the Middle Ages.
Tapestry is relatively fragile and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to be hung vertically on a wall, or sometimes horizontally on a piece of furniture such as a table or a bed. In some periods, smaller pieces, often long and narrow, were made and used as borders for other weavings. Therefore, European tapestries are usually made to be viewed from one side only and often have a plain lining added on the reverse side.