Everything Old is New Again… A Look into the Tapestries at Caramoor

A recent article in The New York Times T Magazine heralded antique tapestries as making a comeback as stylish wallcoverings, even “showing up in the most modern settings.” All we can say is “That’s so 1500!”

In the 15th and 16th centuries, patrons prized tapestries above paintings. After all, their sheer size, scale, and the value of the materials (wool and silk, with some silk threads wrapped in thin bands of gold and silver) made them the monumental artistic achievements of the day. Unlike a fresco, they would be transported from place to place, and the weaving workshops of Brussels, Beauvais, and Mortlake thrived on commissions for significant “cycles” or sets of tapestries that depicted religious subjects, historical events, or pastoral scenes in vibrant color and on a grand scale.

The Rosen House collection includes two tapestries. The hardest to miss is the very large 16th-century panel entitled The Holy Family, which graces the Music Room (a rare survivor from a set commissioned by Barthelemy de Clugny for the Cathedral of Orleans in France in 1512).

A smaller piece can be found in Mrs. Rosen’s bedroom. This tiny tapestry thought to be woven in the Fontainebleu workshop in the 1600s is more whimsical and features a fantastical creature with insect wings and legs transformed into leafy scrolls.

As designer Giancarlo Valle said in T Magazine, tapestries “are like lenses into another world.” These two examples from the Rosen House open up two very different worlds indeed…