The National Gallery of Art in Washington recently unveiled “The Invention of Glory: Alfonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries,” four enormous pieces created by Flemish weavers in the 1470s. Commissioned to applaud King Afonso V of Portugal, who invaded Moroccan coastal cities in the mid-15th century, the tapestries never made it to Lisbon. Instead, they languished in the Spanish town of Pastrana: moth-eaten, faded and rarely seen.
Paul M.R. Maeyaert/Fundación Carlos de Amberes
With the help of the Fundación Carlos de Amberes and the meticulous restoration work of the Belgian Royal Manufactures De Wit, the sieges of Tangiers and Asilah crackle once more: with their clashing knights carrying enormous spears, the scenes look like outtakes from “Game of Thrones.”
Now the restored tapestries have come to America for the first time. “As a journalist, I look at these tapestries as the beginning of war photography,” said Miguel Ángel Aguilar, the chairman of the Fundación and an opinion writer for the newspaper El País, at the opening gala, which drew ambassadors from across the diplomatic world and at least one Spanish princess. “But they also come from the imagination of the artists who had never actually seen Morocco. The cities look like those of the Low Countries; the artists added monkeys so the viewer would know this was North Africa.”
But Aguilar points out something else about these tapestries — all of the characters, both warrior and vanquished, are “drawn sympathetically — unlike later depictions of war, where the conquered look like animals.” Here all are human, with very real, and very sympathetic expressions. The restoration has brought back all the vibrancy to the deep clarets and royal blues favored by these weavers, and the details — like a baby strapped to a woman’s back and the beards of the soldiers — are startlingly clear.
The exhibition was brought to the United States through the work of the Spanish, Portuguese and Belgian embassies, as well as the Fundación Carlos de Amberes. The tapestries remain on view through Jan. 8 at the National Gallery of Art (free) and then at the Meadows Museum in Dallas.
