--- title: "Flemish tapestries in Bruges: what to see | Karel de Stoute" url: https://www.chocolatehotel.be/en/bruges/flemish-tapestries description: "Where to see Flemish tapestries in Bruges: the Gruuthuse Museum, the cathedral, the Holy Blood treasury. And the city's own weavers, from 1302 to about 1700." lang: en --- Image: The Seven Liberal Arts, a 17th-century tapestry designed by Cornelis Schut, in the entrance hall of the Gruuthuse Museum in Bruges (https://www.chocolatehotel.be/assets/guide-flemish-tapestries-hero-kt-DOdip.webp) Museums # Flemish tapestries in Bruges: where to see them, and the city's own weavers Photo: Rainer Halama, public domain, cropped: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gruuthusemuseum-Schut-Seven_liberal_Arts_DSC9600.jpg A Flemish tapestry is a wall hanging woven by hand in wool, often with silk and sometimes with gold or silver thread, made in the Low Countries from the 14th century to the end of the 18th. The place to see them in Bruges is the Gruuthuse Museum on the Dijver, where a Seven Liberal Arts tapestry from a series woven in the city in the 1670s hangs in the entrance hall. Eight Brussels tapestries of around 1730 hang in the choir of St Salvator's Cathedral, free to see. Bruges had its own weavers from 1302 until about 1700, with a guild from 1441 and a crowned b as its city mark. Staying in Bruges? Our nine rooms are a short walk from here. See the rooms (https://www.chocolatehotel.be/en/rooms) ## What is a Flemish tapestry? A tapestry is a picture woven by hand on a loom. The coloured weft threads cover the warp completely, so the finished piece shows only the image and none of the structure. The warp is usually undyed wool; the weft is coloured wool, often mixed with silk, and in the costliest pieces gold or silver thread. Gold thread could raise the price to perhaps fifty times that of wool alone. "Flemish" is used loosely. The great weaving towns of the southern Low Countries were Arras, Tournai, Brussels, Oudenaarde and Enghien: separate cities, none of them next to Bruges. Bruges itself was a smaller centre with its own guild. The tapestries went to courts and churches across Europe. They were hung on cold walls for insulation in winter, carried from one residence to the next when a king moved, and hung behind a throne as a sign of authority. They were also an investment: the most expensive kind of picture there was. Two words come up on museum labels. A verdure is a tapestry of greenery, with no story; it was the easiest kind to weave and was made in series. A millefleurs is a verdure with a ground of many small flowers, often behind a coat of arms. ## How a tapestry was made The weaver started from a cartoon, a full-size painted design. On an upright, high-warp loom the warp threads are stretched vertically and the weaver sits behind them, working from the back and checking the cartoon directly or in a mirror. On a horizontal, low-warp loom, the usual kind in the large workshops, the cartoon was cut into strips and placed under the warps. In both cases the weaver worked from the back, and the woven picture came out as a mirror image of the painting. St Salvator's Cathedral keeps both the painted designs and the tapestries of its 18th-century set, so you can see this for yourself. The dyes were natural, and not lightfast. For the Unicorn Tapestries, probably woven in Brussels around 1495 to 1505, the dyes identified are weld for yellow, madder for red and woad for blue. Because the yellow goes first, leaves that were once green have often turned blue. The work was slow, but not endless: about six weeks for a square metre, or a square yard of medium quality per weaver per month. One measure of quality is the number of warp threads per centimetre: about eight in Brussels, four or five elsewhere. ## Where Flemish tapestries were made Paris led the trade until the English took the city in 1415, and the Burgundian court then encouraged weaving in its own lands. Arras, second to Paris from about 1350, led after 1415, until the French king took the town in 1477; it never recovered. Tournai had the most important commissions around 1450, and Charles the Bold's Trojan War set was woven there in the late 15th century. From the late 15th century Brussels was the main centre, drawing weavers from Arras and Tournai: Raphael's Acts of the Apostles was woven there from 1515 to 1519, and the last Brussels workshop closed in 1794. Oudenaarde on the Scheldt wove from the 15th century to the 18th, with its peak in the 16th. Its speciality was the verdure, and each piece carried the town's arms with their small spectacles, a quality label ordered by Charles V. Enghien specialised in heraldic pieces. Antwerp became the main market for all of them, at the expense of Bruges. Marks help to tell the centres apart. From 16 May 1528 a Brussels tapestry had to carry the weaver's monogram and the city mark, two capital Bs with a small red shield between them, and an imperial edict of May 1544 extended marking to the other centres. 1441 The weavers' guild founded ## Bruges' own weavers, 1302 to about 1700 Bruges weavers first appear in the records in 1302. Several crafts worked side by side on different looms, and the differences led to disputes and lawsuits. In 1441 they founded a guild, the Sint-Barbaranering. Its guild house stood in a back house in the Broodstraat, just off the Markt; the guild bought it in 1518 and sold it in 1708. Unlike most Flemish centres, Bruges weavers worked on upright, high-warp looms. Nothing woven in Bruges before the 16th century survives. The oldest known pieces date from the early 1500s, and production lasted until about 1700. In 1547 the weavers were required to weave a crowned Gothic b into their work as a quality mark; from the end of the 16th century a spool appears as well, sometimes next to the weaver's own monogram. Where there is no mark, a piece is attributed to Bruges by its palette: a very typical red and yellow, warmth from wine red in many shades, strongly contrasting colours. Bruges work is coarser than that of Brussels or Antwerp, with a heavier warp, usually smaller, and flat and decorative in character: made for the houses of burghers rather than for palaces. The subjects ran from the life of Christ and the Virgin and the saints, through coats of arms and millefleurs, to the Months, the Seasons, the Virtues, Hercules and the Roman triumphs. The Seven Liberal Arts alone existed in eleven different series, and in the 17th century this subject may have been the most successful product of the city's workshops. Designs came from painters elsewhere: Cornelis Schut of Antwerp, a pupil of Rubens, Frans Floris, Stradanus and Rubens himself. One Bruges painter worked for others in turn: Jean Bondol, called Jean de Bruges, court painter of Charles V of France from 1368, designed the Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers, woven in Paris from 1377 to 1382. How much Bruges wove is unknown. The 1987 exhibition "Brugge en de tapijtkunst" in the Gruuthuse and Memling museums showed 76 Bruges tapestries made between 1502 and 1673, and its catalogue listed 253 pieces. Bruges work also hangs in Vienna, Madrid, Berlin, Coimbra, Milan and New York. ## Where to see tapestries in Bruges today The Gruuthuse Museum (Dijver 17C): the city's tapestry collection. In the entrance hall hangs The Seven Liberal Arts, 518 by 366 cm in wool and silk, designed by Cornelis Schut and listed as a Flemish masterpiece. The series was woven in Bruges in the 1670s: the Astrologia from it, dated 1673, hangs in the museum too. Look also for the armorial tapestry of the De Nagera family of about 1550, 278 by 271 cm, and the fragments of a verdure of about 1528 to 1530, woven by Antoon Segon for the Liberty of Bruges, with a squirrel among flowers on a dark ground; the hanging in the Liberty's chamber on the Burg today is a replacement of 1858 to 1860. Open 9:30 to 17:00, closed on Wednesdays; €15. Our Gruuthuse Museum guide has the rest of the house, the tickets and the museum card. St Salvator's Cathedral: eight tapestries of the life of Christ, woven around 1730 in the Brussels workshop of Jasper Van der Borcht, hang in the choir above the stalls, with their painted designs in the church. Entry is free. Our St Salvator's Cathedral guide tells their story. Our Lady of the Pottery (Potterierei 79B): the miracles ascribed to its statue of the Virgin are told on tapestries by an anonymous Bruges workshop, listed as a masterpiece, as well as in a miracle book and in the stained glass. Open Friday to Sunday, 9:30 to 12:30 and 13:30 to 17:00; €8, under 13 free. The Basilica of the Holy Blood (Burg): its treasury holds a tapestry woven in Bruges in 1637 by Jan de Ruddere for the abbot of the Eekhout abbey, 260 by 534 cm in wool, silk and metal thread. It shows the transfer of St Augustine's relics to Pavia against the skyline of Bruges, with the towers of St Salvator's, the Belfry and the Church of Our Lady, and carries two city marks. It has been a protected Flemish masterpiece since 15 March 2021; ask at the treasury whether it is on show. The treasury is open every day from 10:00 to 17:15; €5, under 12 free. Our Burg guide covers the basilica. ## Charles the Bold's Trojan War tapestries The best-known tapestries connected with Bruges were not woven here. In 1472 the city of Bruges and the Liberty of Bruges presented Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, with a set of eleven tapestries of the Story of the Trojan War, each about 4.75 metres high and 9.5 metres long; the payments run from 1472 to 1476. The order went to Pasquier Grenier, a dealer in Tournai who worked with workshops in Tournai, Bruges and Antwerp, and the set was woven in Tournai. Charles the Bold is the duke our house on Moerstraat was built for, and the Karel de Stoute our hotel is named after; our Charles the Bold guide tells his story. For the cloth trade that paid for gifts like these, see our guide to Bruges in its Golden Age. ## Getting there from Hotel Karel de Stoute The Markt is about 5 minutes on foot from our door on Moerstraat; the Broodstraat, where the weavers' guild had its house, runs off it. The Gruuthuse Museum on the Dijver is about 15 minutes. The Burg and the cathedral have their own guides. ## Frequently asked questions Were tapestries made in Bruges? Yes. Weavers are recorded in Bruges from 1302, the guild dates from 1441, and the city wove until about 1700. Nothing made before the 16th century survives. What is a verdure? A tapestry of greenery: foliage, flowers and sometimes animals, without a story. Oudenaarde made them in series; a millefleurs is a verdure with a ground of many small flowers. How long did a tapestry take to weave? The figures that survive are about six weeks for a square metre, or a square yard of medium quality per weaver per month. How do you recognise a Bruges tapestry? By the crowned Gothic b woven in as the city mark from 1547, sometimes with a spool from the end of the 16th century, and otherwise by the typical red and yellow palette. Where can I see Flemish tapestries in Bruges? In the Gruuthuse Museum, in the choir of St Salvator's Cathedral, where entry is free, at Our Lady of the Pottery and in the treasury of the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Were Charles the Bold's Trojan War tapestries woven in Bruges? No. Bruges gave them to the duke in 1472, but they were ordered through the Tournai dealer Pasquier Grenier and woven in Tournai. ## More guides All guides (https://www.chocolatehotel.be/en/bruges#guides) - Museums ### Gruuthuse Museum The palace of Louis of Gruuthuse: 500 years of Bruges in tapestries, lace and stained glass. Read the guide https://www.chocolatehotel.be/en/bruges/gruuthuse-museum - Sights ### St Salvator's Cathedral and its tapestries The free cathedral of Bruges: Brussels tapestries, the Golden Fleece arms and a treasury with Dirk Bouts. Read the guide https://www.chocolatehotel.be/en/bruges/st-salvators-cathedral - Burgundian history ### Charles the Bold and Burgundian Bruges The duke our house was built for, his wedding of 1468 and where to see his traces. Read the guide https://www.chocolatehotel.be/en/bruges/charles-the-bold Image: Horse carriages waiting on the Markt in front of the stepped gable houses (https://www.chocolatehotel.be/assets/explore-close-markt-carriages-DvfjOgsq.webp) ## Stay in a house built for Charles the Bold Moerstraat 23, five minutes from the Markt. Book here for €10 less than on Booking.com. Check Availability (https://www.chocolatehotel.be/booking) We use cookies to analyse traffic and improve your experience. Choose whether to accept them — read our cookie policy (https://www.chocolatehotel.be/en/cookies). 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