Depicted in the Tapestries
This is quite a remarkable exhibit, through January 12th, 2025. Try and go during the week to avoid clatches of gawkers.
The battle of Pavia has been hailed as the first modern battle, marking the rise of hand held weapons as a tool of warfare. In this titanic clash - the most decisive of the Italian Wars, caused by French territorial ambitions in first the Kingdom of Naples and then the Duchy of Milan - the French troops were smashed by the Spanish Imperial Army. King Francis I was captured, and the cream of his nobility slaughtered. France's greatest defeat since Agincourt, the battle dramatically swung the balance of power in Western Europe.
The rare Battle of Pavia tapestries are now on view at the de Young Museum, showcasing Renaissance art fit for a king.
By Letha Ch'ien Oct 17, 2024 - San Francisco Chronicle
The huge textiles, each measuring about 27 by 14 feet, rich with detail, dwarfed the director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at the de Young Museum earlier this week during a preview of the exhibition for the Chronicle. Starting Oct. 19, the rest of the Bay Area has an exceptional opportunity to revel in Renaissance court splendor at “Art and War in the Renaissance: Battle of Pavia Tapestries,” which brings a rare surviving set of seven of the finest quality tapestries from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples for its only West Coast stop and only North American public viewing outside of Texas.
The Battle of Pavia tapestries are a unique set, never copied. Though the princes of Europe collected many tapestries, few have survived. Of Henry VIII’s collection of around 2,000 tapestries, only 50 or so remain. From Charles V’s collection of 600-700 tapestries, about 200-300 survive, among them the Battle of Pavia set.
Artistically, the tapestries are some of the highest quality and most ambitious examples of the art form. Flemish designer Bernard van Orley, in collaboration with weavers of the Willem and Jan Dermoyen workshop in Brussels that produced the textiles, combined the latest pictorial innovations of dramatic storytelling conveyed by active figures and illusionistic three-dimensional modeling with tapestry’s ability to display multiple stories simultaneously.
“Lord of the Rings” CGI battle scenes have nothing on the innumerable figures spread across each Battle of Pavia tapestry. Inscribed names on swords or across a horse’s livery identify major historical figures. Unnamed peasants steal chickens off to the side of battle. Court ladies accompanying generals during the war watch the spectacle bedecked in eye-popping finery.
Though modern taste tends to favor paintings, tapestries were the most expensive and prestigious medium during the Renaissance, said Campbell, who in addition to directing FAMSF, happens to be a leading tapestry expert. (In some circles, he’s known as “Tapestry Tom.”)
“The painting is in a sense, a kind of middle-class art form,” he explained. “Tapestry is an art form of kings.”
Rare tapestries as big as Muni buses are now on view at a S.F. museum
Greg