International studio (48.1913)

The Acts of the Apostles Tapestries, After Raphael

THE STONING OF SAINT STEPHEN BRUSSELS SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TAPESTRY
IN THE ROYAL SPANISH COLLECTION AFTER RAPHAEL


Miraculous Draught of Fish; (2) The Charge to
Saint Peter; (3) The Cure of the Paralytic; (4) The
Death of Ananias; (5) The Stoning of Saint
Stephen; (6) The Conversion of Saint Paul; (7)
Elymas Struck Blind; (8) The Sacrifice at Lystra;
{(f) Saint Paul in Prison; (10) Saint Paul on the
Areopagus.
One of these St. Paul in Prison being small, or
rather diminutive, in size, does not appear ever to
have been reproduced, except as part of the first
set for the Sistine Chapel. So that most of the
sets of Acts of the Apostles tapestries consist of
nine pieces. Those woven at Mortakle consist of
only seven pieces, being woven from the seven
cartoons that Sir Francis Crane got from Genoa
for Charles I.
As I have said in my book on “ Tapestries, their
Origin, History and Renaissance,” these paintings
of Raphael were not particularly suited for expres-
sion in tapestry , and by leading tapestry design-

ers off in the wrong direction did incalculable harm
to the art of tapestry weaving. But the weavers
of Brussels in the first half of the Sixteenth Cen-
tury were so skillful that no difficulties could daunt
them, and in the weaving of the tapestries for the
Vatican they modified color and design boldly in
the direction of tapestry texture.
The different sets of Acts of the Apostles tapes-
tries, while resembling one another closely as
regards the picture part, have borders that are
totally unlike.
The Vatican set has bottom borders woven in
imitation of bas-relief depicting the life of Leo X
before he became Pope, and scenes in the life of
St. Paul. A full set of side borders the Vatican
set never had, the space in the Sistine Chapel, for
which the tapestries were calculated, admitting of
only seven instead of twenty.
The most interesting borders possessed by any
are those of the principal set in the Royal Spanish

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