designed ca. 1689–93, woven 1732–39, Rome

designed ca. 1689–93, woven 1732–39, Rome

Identifier
92.1.14
Transfer of custody
Victoria and Albert Museum
Acquisition
Bequest of Elizabeth U. Coles, in memory of her son, William F. Coles, 1892
Collection
Material
Technique
Depiction
Production time
Production place
Type of object

Description

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).