Rare Raphael tapestries weave their spell at V&A museum

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12 April 2012

A collection of rare tapestries designed by Raphael for the Sistine Chapel is to go on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The four pieces are the only surviving tapestries by the artist. Experts say they are comparable to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling as masterpieces of High Renaissance art.

They will be displayed alongside their full-size original designs — the Raphael Cartoons — which have been at the V&A since 1865. It will be the first time that the designs and tapestries have been shown together — something Raphael himself never witnessed.

The tapestries were made for the chapel in Vatican City almost 500 years ago and show the Acts of St Peter and St Paul: The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Christ's Charge to Peter, The Healing of the Lame Man and The Sacrifice at Lystra.

They were woven in Brussels and then sent to Rome for display. The weavers cut Raphael's cartoons into strips and copied them closely, producing each tapestry from the back — the reverse of the cartoon. The painted strips of cartoon were put back together and became prized artworks in their own right.

The cartoons remained in Brussels and several European monarchs, including Henry VIII, commissioned copies of the tapestries. In 1623, the future Charles I brought the cartoons to England to have his own set of tapestries woven in Mortlake.

The exhibition of the tapestries, which are owned by the Vatican Museums, will take place from September 8 until October 17 to coincide with the visit to Britain of Pope Benedict.

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