Tapestries are incredibly beautiful things -- especially those dating from the period of the 1500's and 1600's -- and one of the more beautiful sets I have come across in my years is a set called the Scènes de la vie de la Vierge which were completed in the year 1657 by the workshop of Pierre Damour.
The tapestries were in fact commissioned by the famed French churchman and statesman, Cardinal Richielieu, being initially intended for the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Eventually, however, due to alterations made to that cathedral they would no longer be of use there, and so they would eventually make their way around various Parisian churches before finally making their way to their present and final home: Strasbourg Cathedral. Since that time, the cathedral of Strasbourg has proudly displayed these tapestries -- which are fourteen in number -- along the length of the nave each Advent and Christmas season.
The cathedral provides us with the following information that helps to set some of the historical context and background that led to their creation:
[These tapestries] owe their origin to the vow made by Louis XIII in 1637 to consecrate his kingdom to the Virgin Mary if he succeeded in restoring peace and was blessed with an heir. On this occasion, the King also promised to build a new high altar for the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris and to renew its decoration. The Paris Cathedral would therefore become a perpetual memorial of this act of consecration of France to the Virgin Mary... As a good courtier eager to gain everlasting royal favour, [Cardinal de Richelieu] decided to donate a series of four tapestries depicting the Life of the Virgin to complete the decorative scheme... Philippe de Champaigne was the Cardinal's favourite painter. It was therefore only natural that he should be entrusted with the production of the first cartoons (oil paintings used as models for tapestries)... For around ten years, the set remained unfinished, probably due to the deaths of Richelieu in 1642 and then Louis XIII the following year, and the troubles associated with the Fronde. Thanks to Abbé Le Masle, a canon of the Cathedral, and Richelieu's steward, the hangings were not only restored to their original state, but extended from the four pieces originally planned, to the fourteen scenes we see today.
The fourteen tapestries include, as their name would suggest, scenes taken from the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ranging from her own nativity to her Dormition, Assumption and Coronation. They are woven of wool and silk and -- I must say -- are absolutely exquisite, being of particular beauty and refinement.
These scenes were commissioned from three notable contemporary French painters of the period, Philippe de Champaigne, Jacques Stella, and Charles Poerson, before being finally translated into their intended final form.
The end result? The fourteen exquisite works we're now pleased to present to your here below.
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| 1. The Nativity of the Virgin |
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| 2. The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple |
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| 3. The Marriage of Mary and Joseph |
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| 4. The Annunciation |
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| 6. The Nativity |
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| 7. Adoration of the Magi |
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| 8. The Purification |
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| 9. The Flight into Egypt |
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| 10. Jesus Teaching in the Temple |
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| 11. The Wedding at Cana |
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| 12. The Dormition of the Virgin |
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| 13. The Assumption of the Virgin |
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| 14. The Coronation of the Virgin |
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