In-person and virtual; link forthcoming.
Charles V and the Tunis Tapestries: Inhabiting the Landscape of the Battle
Unlike his successors to the Spanish Crown, the emperor Charles V personally participated in several of the battles fought by his armies. His presence was emphasized in the rhetoric of the Tunis military campaign of 1535, as the embodiment of the new Scipio Africanus. Yet, his figure is barely visible in the series of tapestries designed by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen and woven by Willem de Pannemaker in 1550-53 to celebrate his imperial deeds in North Africa, while Christian knights and Ottoman warriors occupy the foreground of the compositions. The lecture will explore the paradox of the emperor's concealed presence in the woven landscape of his Tunisian victory, by examining the modes of display of this magnificent and monumental tenture – one of the most ambitious and expensive artistic commissions of his reign.
