You can feel the first chill of autumn in the air- hints of winter closing in! Summer still clings, a whole 4 days in a row of sunshine and warmth! And we live in hope of an Indian summer – might even push us through October. But winter’s steady march will not be deterred and we suddenly realize the roof needs some repair, the door is waiting for the paint job we promised it, thoughts of stocking up on some firewood keeps crossing our mind and that wall, actually walls begging for tapestries keeps calling to us.
Since very early times, tapestries have decorated cold stone castle walls, palaces, villas, chateaux, stately homes, country estates and of course our modern homes today.
Through the centuries, wall hanging tapestries have come in different shapes, sizes and themes. During the medieval times subjects ranged from religious to personal leisure themes. Most of the medieval tapestries all had millions of flowers and plants strewn throughout the wall tapestry. Hand woven tapestries served a dual purpose during these early times – they provided warm against the winter cold and cheered up dull, dark grey stone walls that often lacked windows and light.
As we proceed through time, tapestries started to take on painterly themes in the 17-19th century. Country pastoral scenes with and without people in them were taken over by gorgeous still life painting like wall hanging tapestries. Huge bouquets in vases brought eternal spring into homes, chateaux, villas and palaces. These colorful displays of flowers in oversized vases brightened the dullest interiors and promised coming spring and summer. Painters competed with one another to produce interesting and spectacular array of color destined to be woven into Italian tapestries and French tapestries. Markets as far away as Russia and extreme northern Europe, where winters were the longest and coldest hungered for these wall hangings faster than they could be produced.