The exhibition 'Art and War in the Renaissance. The Battle of Pavia Tapestries," on display at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, presented for the first time in the United States the entire cycle of seven monumental tapestries detailing the battle fought in the territory of Pavia on 24 February 1525 between the French army led by King Francis I and the imperial army of Charles V, considered by many historians to be the event that began the modern age in Europe.
The tapestries, recently restored in Italy and coming from the permanent collection of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples, in the Museo de Young's display have been accompanied by preparatory drawings from the Louvre Museum in Paris and splendid armour and weapons of the time, also from the Capodimonte Museum.
The tapestries of the Battle of Pavia, made of silver and gold threads sewn together with precious wools and silks from all over the world, are among the masterpieces of Flemish textile production in the 16th century. The Capodimonte series constitutes a unicum in terms of its subject matter: for the first time, in fact, a contemporary event is treated in a large tapestry cycle.
To mark the finissage of the exhibition, the de Young Museum organised, in collaboration with the IIC San Francisco, a two-day international symposium entitled 'Art + Propaganda in the European Tapestry', which explored the theme of the historical reconstruction of past events through the use of works of art such as tapestries, which lent themselves well to celebratory purposes and political and religious propaganda.
The symposium was attended by historians and scholars of tapestry art, including the Italians Francesca Borgo (University of St Andrews), Alessandra Rodolfo (Vatican Museums) and Lucia Meoni (Accademia del Disegno di Firenze).
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