Tapestry of the Apocalypse (Death)
This conversation is connected to Tapestry of the Apocalypse (Death).
This is a detail from the Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers, the largest surviving medieval tapestry in the world, commissioned by Louis I, Duke of Anjou, around 1373 and woven in the Paris workshop of Nicolas Bataille from designs by the Flemish court painter Hennequin de Bruges. The full tapestry originally measured 140 meters long and consisted of 90 scenes illustrating the Book of Revelation. This panel shows the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, Death, depicted as a grinning, decaying corpse astride a pale horse against a red ground with stylized trees. The choice to represent Death as a corpse rather than a living figure followed a style then popular in England, and it's one of the tapestry's most unusual details. During the French Revolution the tapestry was looted and cut into pieces — fragments were used as floor mats, horse blankets, and insulation for orange trees. Most of it was recovered in 1848 and is now displayed at the Château d'Angers.