Tapestry with the scenes from the Life of Christ
c. 1480
Germany, possibly Eichstätt
tapestry of wool and linen wefts on an undyed wool warp
60.5 × 233.5 cm
This remarkable textile is a part of a large tapestry set now preserved in the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia in Rome. Strong evidence shows that this tapestry was made by women weavers in the last decades of the fifteenth century, in a workshop run and patronized by the nuns of the monastery of Saint Walburga in Eichstätt. The nuns at Eichstätt worked closely with contemporary woodblock printers and engravers on the adaptation and translation of printed designs into full-scale tapestry versions that depict the narrative of the Creation, Fall, and Redemption of humanity.
