The Crusaders Reach Jerusalem (from a set of Scenes from Gerusalemme Liberata)

Domenico Paradisi|San Michele|Pietro Ferloni

designed ca. 1689–93, woven 1732–39 · Wool, silk (16-18 warps per inch, 7 per cm.) · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Commissioned by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a great-nephew of Pope Alexander VIII, this was part of a massive series, heroic in scale as well as narrative, of fifteen tapestries depicting the romanticized version of the Christians’ First Crusade into Jerusalem recounted in Tasso’s sixteenth-century epic poem, Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). As the crusaders reach the city of Jerusalem, two of the Christian leaders kneel in the foreground, both in Classical armor with garments of red, blue and yellow. The younger man is presumably Godfrey of Bouillon. Other mounted men in gray armor are seen behind. Rising in the background on the right are the walls of Jerusalem.

Artist

Domenico Paradisi|San Michele|Pietro Ferloni

Date

designed ca. 1689–93, woven 1732–39

Medium

Wool, silk (16-18 warps per inch, 7 per cm.)

Culture

Italian, Rome

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Elizabeth U. Coles, in memory of her son, William F. Coles, 1892