Editing Tapestry (section)

==Peak period, after about 1350==
[[File:Flemish 16th Century, The Return from the Hunt, c. 1525-1550, NGA 46096.jpg|thumb|Flemish 16th Century, ''The Return from the Hunt'', c. 1525–1550, [[National Gallery of Art]]]]
A decisive shift in European tapestry history came around 1350, and in many respects set the pattern for the industry until the end of its main period of importance, in the upheavals following the French Revolution.<ref>V&A</ref>  The tapestries made for the very small number of customers able to commission the best pieces were now extremely large, and extremely expensive, very often made in sets, and often showed complicated narrative or allegorical scenes with large numbers of figures.<ref name="CampbellAinsworth1314" />     They were made in large workshops concentrated in a number of cities in a relatively small region of northern France and the [[Southern Netherlands]] (partly to be near supplies of English wool).  By convention all these are often called "Flemish tapestries", although most of the production centres were not in fact in the [[County of Flanders]].

Before reaching the weaving workshop, the commissioning process typically involved a patron, an artist, and a merchant or dealer who sorted out the arrangements and contracts.  Some tapestries seem to have been made for stock, before a customer had emerged.  The financing of the considerable costs of setting up a workshop is often obscure, especially in the early period, but rulers supported some workshops, or other wealthy people.  The merchants or dealers were very likely also involved.

===Weaving centres===
Where surviving tapestries from before around 1600 were made is often unclear; from 1528 [[Brussels]], by then clearly the main centre, required its weavers to mark tapestries of any size with the city's mark and that of the weaver or merchant.<ref name="Osborne, 759">Osborne, 759</ref>  At any one time from 1350 to 1600 probably only one or two centres could produce the largest and finest royal orders, and groups of highly skilled weavers migrated to new centres, often driven to move by wars or the plague.  At first Paris led the field, but the English occupation there after 1418 sent many to [[Arras]], already a centre.  Arras in turn was sacked in 1477, leading to the rise of [[Tournai]], until a serious plague early in the next century.  Brussels had been growing in importance, and now became the most important centre, which it remained until the [[Eighty Years War]] disrupted all the Netherlands.  Brussels had a revival in the early 17th century, but from around 1650 the French factories were increasingly overtaking it, and remained dominant until both fashion and the upheavals of the French Revolution and the [[Napoleonic Wars]] brought the virtual end of the traditional demand for large tapestries.<ref>Osborne, 759–760</ref>

There was always some tapestry weaving, mostly in rather smaller workshops making smaller pieces, in other towns in northern France and the Low Countries.  This was also the case in other parts of Europe, especially Italy and Germany.  From the mid-16th century many rulers encouraged or directly established workshops capable of high-quality work in their domains.  This was most successful in France, but Tuscany, Spain, England and eventually Russia had high-quality workshops, normally beginning with the importation of a group of skilled workers from the "Flemish" centres. 
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The form reached a new stage in Europe in the early 14th century AD. The first wave of production occurred in Germany and Switzerland. Over time, the craft expanded to France and the Netherlands, with Paris, Doornik and [[Atrecht]] being most notable. The basic tools have remained much the same.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, [[Arras]], France was a thriving textile town. "Arras" is still used to refer to a rich tapestry no matter where it was woven. Indeed, as literary scholar Rebecca Olson argues, Arras were the most valuable objects in England during the early modern period and inspired writers such as [[William Shakespeare]] and [[Edmund Spenser]] to weave these tapestries into their most important works such as ''[[Hamlet]]'' and ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Olson | first = Rebecca | title = Arras Hanging: The Textile That Determined Early Modern Literature and Drama | publisher = University of Delaware Press | location = Newark | year = 2013 | isbn = 978-1611494686 }}</ref>

By the 14th-century tapestries were also made in [[Bruges]], [[Oudenaarde]], [[Geraardsbergen]], [[Edingen]] and [[Gent]].

By the 16th century, [[Flanders]], the towns of [[Mechelen]], Leuven, [[Rijsel]] and Antwerp started producing tapestries. However, the towns of Oudenaarde, [[Brussels tapestry|Brussels]], [[Geraardsbergen]] and Enghien had become the centres of European tapestry production. 
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===Patrons===
[[File:Tapisserie de l'apocalypse.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Apocalypse Tapestry]]'' in the [[Château d'Angers]], in [[Angers]], [[France]]]]
The main weaving centres were ruled by the French and [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundian]] branches of the [[House of Valois]], who were extremely important patrons in the [[Late Medieval]] period.  This began with the four sons of [[John II of France]] (d. 1362), whose inventories reveal they owned hundreds of tapestries between them.  Almost the only clear survival from these collections, and the most famous tapestry from the 14th century, is the huge ''[[Apocalypse Tapestry]]'', a very large set made for [[Louis I, Duke of Anjou]] in Paris between 1377 and 1382.<ref>Campbell and Ainsworth, 14–17</ref>

Another of the brothers, [[Philip the Bold]], [[Duke of Burgundy]] (d. 1404) was probably an even more extravagant spender, and presented many tapestries to other rulers around Europe.  Several of the tapestry-weaving centres were in his territories, and his gifts can be seen as a rather successful attempt to spread the taste for large Flemish tapestries to other courts, as well as being part of his attempt to promote the status of his duchy.  Apart from Burgundy and France, tapestries were given to several of the English [[Plantagenet dynasty|Plantagenets]], and the rulers of  Austria, Prussia, Aragon, Milan, and at his specific request, to the Ottoman [[Sultan Bazajet I]] (as part of a ransom deal for the duke's son).  None of the tapestries Philip commissioned appear to survive.<ref>Campbell and Ainsworth, 15–17</ref>  Philip's taste for tapestries was to continue very strongly in his descendants, including the Spanish Habsburgs.