EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES
SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART
CATALOGUE
OF THE
RETROSPECTIVE LOAN EXHIBITION
OF
EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES
BY
PHYLLIS ACKERMAN
M.A.; PH.D.
WITH A PREFACE BY
J. NILSEN LAURVIK
DIRECTOR
SAN FRANCISCO
PUBLISHED BY THE MUSEUM
MCMXXII
Published September 29, 1922, in an edition of2000 copies. Copyright, 1922, by San FranciscoMuseum of Art. Reprinted November 15, 1922,500 copies.
Printed by TAYLOR & TAYLOR, San Francisco.In the making of the type-design for the cover, theprinter has introduced an illuminated fifteenth-centurywoodcut by an unknown master. Its originalappears, illuminated as shown, in "L'Istoire de laDestruction de Troye la Grant," a book printedat Paris, dated May 12, 1484, of which only asingle copy is known to exist, that in the RoyalLibrary at Dresden, this reproduction having beenmade from the excellent facsimile of the block shownin Claudin's "Histoire de l'Imprimerie en France."The border-design of the cover is composed of thenames of the chief tapestry-producing cities in Europeduring the Gothic and Renaissance periods.
Halftones made by Commercial Art Company, SanFrancisco.
PREFACE
This historical exhibition of European Tapestries is the fourth in a series of retrospectiveexhibitions which we have planned to illustrate the chronological developmentof some important phase of world-art, as in the Old Masters Exhibition, heldin the fall of 1920, or of the art of an individual in whose work is significantlyreflected the spirit of his age, as in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of drawingsand etchings by Rembrandt, exhibited here in the spring of 1920.
In its scope and general lines this exhibition follows closely the plan of our Exhibitionof Paintings by Old Masters, and, as will at once be apparent from thesubject-matter and treatment, covers the same period of European history. Althoughimportant exhibitions of European tapestries have been held at various times bothhere and abroad, it has remained for our museum to arrange the first completehistorical survey of this art given in America. This collection presents in unbrokensequence the main currents influential in the development and decadence of thegreat art of tapestry-weaving in Europe, from the XIVth century down to andincluding the early XIXth century, as exhibited in the work of the foremost designersand weavers of the period, in examples that, for the most part, are brilliantlytypical and always characteristic of their particular style.
Virtually, every loom of importance in France, Flanders, Germany, Switzerland,Spain, England, and Russia is here represented by historically famous pieces whichrun the entire gamut of subjects that engaged the interest of the most celebrateddesigners and weavers of each epoch, from allegorical, classical, historical, andmythological to genre subjects, landscapes, religious piece