Wikidata:WikiProject Textile arts/Tapestry

As of 8 March 2020, there are more than 1100 tapestries and 275 tapestry series in Wikidata. Probably three-quarters of these items are from bulk imports from the Palissy database of French furnishings. This page documents some best practices concerning this rich group of textiles. (Notes by PKM (talk) unless marked differently.)

Core items edit

Use for values of instance of (P31):

Organizations edit

Notes edit

  • Getty AAT distinguishes between "manufactories" and "workshops". The major manufactories had multiple subsidiary workshops. I have not made this distinction in Wikidata because third-party sources seem to use "workshop" and "manufactory" interchangeably.

Occupations edit

These can be used for occupation (P106) of persons and object has role (P3831) qualifier in creator (P170) statements.

Notes edit

  • Where there are multiple named creators (designer, designer of borders, weaver, manufactory), be generous with qualifiers object has role (P3831) (with an occupation) and applies to part (P518).
    • In Commons: Template {{Wikidata Infobox}} will pick up both <object has role> and <applies to part>. Template {{Artwork}} will pick up <applies to part> but not <object has role>.
  • The French term tapissier may mean either a tapestry weaver or a dealer who contracts out the actual weaving. There is much discussion in the literature as to who held which roles. Follow your sources.
  • Getty AAT/ULAN seem to use "manufactory director" where the Gobelins and Aubusson records use entrepreneur, describing a contractor who ran a subsidiary workshop in one of the great manufactories, but I haven't done the research to confirm that this is Getty's practice. In general, I have followed the usage in my sources.

Techniques edit

These can be used for fabrication method (P2079) statements.

Materials edit

These materials are commonly used in tapestry-making and can be used for made from material (P186) statements.

Modeling edit

Cradle form

Examples of tapestry items:

References edit

These are useful references for working on tapestries. Met publications that are out of print are available to download as PDFs, and some of the others are accessible online.

Wikidata Comment
Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor (Q74457662)
Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (Q76018985) PDF
Flemish Tapestry from the 15th to the 18th Century (Q76656023)
Flemish Tapestry Weavers Abroad: Emigration and the Founding of Manufactories in Europe (Q76755384)
Het Vlaamse wandtapijt van de 15de tot de 18de eeuw (Q76887260)
Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art (Q77001341)
China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD (Q77022173) PDF
Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Q77596178) PDF
La tapisserie flamande du XVe au XVIIIe siècle (Q79668810)
Furnishing the Eighteenth Century: What Furniture Can Tell Us about the European and American Past (Q79907106)
Weaving Sacred Stories (Q82106877)
French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Q82805139) PDF
Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV (Q83564749)
La Manufacture nationale des Gobelins (Q83810813) Online @ BNF
Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry (Q84581553)
European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Q85640865) PDF
European Tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago (Q86925563) Borrow from Internet Archive