Cosimo I de’ Medici and the Art of Flemish Tapestry: A Material Study of the Flemish Tapestry Production in Florence for Cosimo I de’ Medici between 1545-1553

Abstract

In 1545, Cosimo I de’ Medici invested in the instatement of two ducal tapestry ateliers in Florence. The so-called Arazzerie Medicee were directed by the Flemish master weavers Jan Rost and Nicolas Karcher. By this time, many Italian patrons had satisfying experiences with commissioning tapestries from Flanders. This arose the question as to why Cosimo decided to invest in having Flemish tapestries produced in his own city. This thesis investigates what aspects of the tapestries’ process of making may have incited Cosimo to introduce this craft in Florence. The approach to answer the question is based on the connection between archival records, iconography, and the artisanal knowledge that is embodied in the object itself. The first part describes the context in which the Flemish-Florentine production came to exist by examining the history of Italian patronage of Flemish tapestry, the circumstances in which the Flemish masters were to work, and the general process of making tapestries. The second part of the thesis describes the tradition of the imagery and explores the materiality of the figurative tapestries that Rost and Karcher made for Cosimo. The results of this research shed new light on the value of the craft of tapestry making in the Florentine context. Firstly, it demonstrated that the materiality of the tapestries was an important consideration from the very beginning of the undertaking. Secondly, it showed that the tapestry workshops can be connected to Cosimo’s interests in science and natural history, and that they may have been part of a larger plan of fostering technological advancements. The thesis provides an impetus for further investigation into the differences in the process of making and the dissimilar developments of Rost’s and Karcher’s tapestry workshops, and invites to further research artisanal exchange of products and knowledge in sixteenth-century Florence.