VIENNA.- The Kunsthistorisches Museum is dedicating its large autumn show of 2023 to a medium that is intricately intertwined with Renaissance celebration and prestige: monumental tapestries. The central focus is the series of depictions featuring the life and acts of the apostles St Peter and St Paul by the momentous painter Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael (1483– 1520). The exhibition traces the sustained influence Raphael’s compositions had on stylistic developments, in particular of Flemish wall hangings. They were picked up on by renowned artists including Barend van Orley, Michiel Coxcie and Pieter Coecke van Aelst. The latter contributed among others the designs for the spectacular series of The Seven Deadly Sins that is rarely on show and forms another highlight in this exhibition.

The huge wall rugs with political messages were used like barely another pictorial medium for propaganda purposes by the aristocracy and the Catholic church. Their luxurious nature is already expressed in the sheer fact of the use of expensive materials such as gold and silver threads, silk and wool as well as the many years and great costs invested in their production. The Kunsthistorisches Museum tapestry collection from formerly imperial possessions is among the most significant collections of its kind worldwide.

Raphael’s Acts of the Apostles for the Sistine Chapel

It is uncertain how Flemish tapestry art would have evolved had it not been for the art-loving Medici Pope Leo X (1475–1521). In 1515, he decided to commission the ten-part Acts of the Apostles series for the Sistine Chapel and entrusted Raphael, who had at that point reached the apex of his career, with their design.

The full-size cartoons, which Raphael had executed like monumental paintings, were masterfully translated into the textile medium by the Brussels factory of Pieter van Aelst. Seven of the tapestries were completed in time for the Christmas celebrations 1519 and were presented on that occasion at their destination. Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), Italian artist and biographer of artists, enthused:

»This was certainly more the result of a miracle than of human artifice, for in these tapestries there are bodies of water, animals, and buildings that are so well made they seem to be painted with the brush rather than woven.«

The comprehensive exhibition opens with six of these wall hangings after Raphael’s designs. They include the impressive tapestry The Death of Ananias, which is on loan from the Vatican Museums.

Tapestry Art After Raphael

Raphael’s tapestries were admired and interpreted by the local artists in Brussels. The wall hangings on show, which are mostly taken from the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s own collections, include not only tapestries following the designs of the Italian genius, but also provide an insight into the subsequent developments in Brussels’ tapestry art.

The tapestry design artists who were impressed by Raphael’s compositions include Barend van Orley (1488–1541), Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1550), and Michiel Coxcie (c.1499– 1592). Van Orley’s designs for the history of Romulus and Remus as well as Michiel Coxcie’s Seven Virtues are shown here, as are the Seven Deadly Sins after cartoons by Pieter Coecke van Aelst. The show reaches its splendid conclusion by bringing visitors face to face with the impressive tapestry The School of Athens, based on Raphael’s popular fresco from the Stanza della Segnatura (Vatican).

Eighteen exclusive items give a striking illustration of how monumental tapestries were able to inspire such great fascination. The tapestries are accompanied by sketches in the artists’ hands, paintings and sculptures, photographs and copper engravings. A screen provides visitors with an impression of the way the original wall hangings after Raphael’s cartoons were hung in the Sistine Chapel. Two films complete the exhibition: one provides insights into the complex process of tapestry production, while the second film documents the way tapestries are now treated at Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Prestigious loans were contributed by Albertina, Vienna; Archivo di Stato, Rome; the Institute of Archaeology and Cast Collections at the University of Göttingen; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City; Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid; École National Supérieur des Beaux-Arts, Paris; Musée du Louvre, Paris; Musei Vaticani, Vatican City; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; Städel Museum, Frankfurt; and Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.

Katja Schmitz-von Ledebur curated the exhibition and is the author of the accompanying publication.

Threads are strung from the floor to the ceiling to form the dominating design element of Michael Embacher’s and Constantin Schweizer’s innovative exhibition design.