Cleveland Museum of Art
Millefleurs Tapestry with Medici Coat of Arms
- Date
- 1520s
- Medium
- tapestry weave: wool and silk
- Culture
- Netherlands, Hainault, early 16th century
- Department
- Textiles
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 122570
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Many identifiable flowering plants provide the French name, millefleur, for this pattern, which became fashionable around 1450. Each plant may have symbolized either religion, courtship, or morals. However, many millefleur tapestries, made for about 100 years, were probably not symbolic. Large quantities were woven only with flowers; some also incorporated birds and animals or, in this case, coats of arms. Here, the original coat of arms has been replaced by that of the Medicis, a prominent family in Renaissance Florence.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Bequest of John L. Severance
- Provenance
- ?–1942: John L. Severance [1863–1936], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1942–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
18th-Century French Decorative ArtsThese objects represent the luxury decorative traditions of 18th-century France, unified by their use of refined materials (tapestry weave, Savonnerie knotted pile, carved wood), classical themes (Ovid's Metamorphoses, S
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