The Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers

Description

The first volume in the new "Regards..." collection, this book offers an exceptionally attractive approach to a masterpiece of medieval art: the Apocalypse Tapestry. Commissioned by Duke Louis I of Anjou and created between 1373 and 1380, its original dimensions were exceptional, with six pieces, each measuring 23.5 meters in length and 6 meters in height, totaling over 140 meters in length. It illustrates the visions that the apostle and evangelist Saint John received around the year 96 and recorded in a book titled the Apocalypse, the last text of the New Testament. This tapestry, displayed at the Château d'Angers in a gallery designed for it in 1954, underwent a spectacular restoration in the 1980s, revealing the intensity and unblemished beauty of the reverse side of this tapestry of lisse.