Tapestry

The tapestry comes from the private apartment of Janina Szczerska (born on 22 October 1897 in Stryj, died on 10 July 1981 in Szczecin) – founder and headmistress of the first general high school in Szczecin. This piece of furniture, together with other personal effects, was donated to the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin on the basis of a bequest made on 1 September 1976. The history of tapestry dates back to the 17th century, when King Louis XIV of France established a royal factory producing tapestries on the land bought from the Gobelin family of weavers. Since then, the one-sided tapestries, made on looms of wool and silk, sometimes with the addition of silver or gold threads, started bearing that family name as well and were referred to as gobelins. The historical, biblical, mythological and hagiographic scenes depicted on them enjoyed great popularity at the noble and royal courts. With the industrial revolution came the mechanisation of tapestry production, which made them much more popular; at the expense of more complex images, which could not be created on machines. That is why tapestries made according to the traditional method remained an expensive and exclusive commodity.

Anna Lew-Machniak