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Commissioned in 1375 by Duke Louis I of Anjou, it took only seven years to complete this work, originally consisting of six large textile pieces, each 23 meters long and 6 meters high.
For Louis I, a great prince and lover of tapestries, this lavish commission was a way to showcase his prestige and ambition, particularly within his family, which was none other than that of... King Charles V of France! These brothers, nicknamed "Prince of the Fleur-de-Lys," contributed to the rise of the art of tapestry by commissioning prestigious works.
The Apocalypse Tapestry served as a backdrop for grand princely ceremonies and was probably displayed... outdoors! With its almost life-sized figures, its strip of flowery ground at the bottom, and its strip of sky inhabited by angels at the top, it functions like a trompe-l'oeil, placing the story in the viewer's real space.
The best artists and craftsmen of the 14th century were called upon: Jean de Bruges, painter to the King of France, created the models. This artist, who painted both miniatures and frescoes, excelled in the art of detail as well as in creating very large formats. He was the man for the job!
The tapestry was probably made in Paris, in the workshops of a man named Robert Poinçon. Woven with brightly colored wool threads, originally mixed with gold-plated threads in some places, the Apocalypse of Angers is a masterpiece of the art of "hisse" tapestry.
It has the distinction of having no backing! All the thread stops were hidden inside the weaving. This extreme attention paid to the invisible side of the work allowed the original colors to be preserved, which were protected from light.
Transparency of the water, sculpted faces, draped clothing: the technique of the artisan weavers is pushed to its climax here.
The tapestry is "read" from left to right and from top to bottom. But today, one must know how to decipher the images, because the texts originally present under each scene have completely disappeared!
The story told is well-known. It is the eternal one of the struggle between Good and Evil. From the Greek "apokalypsis," which means "lifting the veil" or "revelation," this tale, written in the 1st century AD by John of Patmos, constitutes the last Book of the Bible.
But the Louis I tapestry goes far beyond the biblical text: through a well-known ancient tale, Louis sought to speak of the present to send a political message to his contemporaries in the midst of the Hundred Years' War.
Dragons and other mythological beasts were joined by knights, monks, and a whole troupe of over 400 characters who were anything but legendary...
The last of the Dukes of Anjou, the famous King René, bequeathed the tapestry to Angers Cathedral at the end of the 15th century. This work, which until then had served the prestige of a prince, became an exclusively religious medium and thus began a new life.
But in the 18th century, fashion changed, and the Apocalypse Tapestry paid the price! Lacking buyers, it was set aside and forgotten.
In the mid-19th century, its preciousness was rediscovered. But in what condition! It had been mutilated, cut into several pieces to be used for menial tasks: variously as a winter veil for the orange trees, a blanket for the horses...
One man, Canon Joubert, then in charge of the cathedral's treasury, devoted his life to its rescue.
The restorations undertaken were extensive, but they had the merit of resurrecting the tapestry, which then traveled the world, from world exhibitions to museums.
It returned triumphantly to the Château d'Angers in the 1950s: a monumental gallery was built there especially for it, allowing you to discover this masterpiece all year round!"