Thomas Campbell Tapestry Quotations

This was not the very finest quality of weaving with gold thread, of the kind that was being produced for the leading courts of the day by the Brussels workshops. Rather, it reflects the sort of medium-quality tapestries that the Florence workshops were producing at this time for use in the Medici palaces. Still, the pride they must have felt, knowing this would be destined to go to Como. Tapestry was such an important part of the theatrical presentation of the day. It was the whole stage set against which the formal side of life was acted out.

I think of those weavers working through the damp Christmas months to get the tapestry done in six months per the contract in Florence, and clinging to every minute of daylight. Probably they had the artist breathing down their neck.