The Holy Family with the Infant Christ Pressing the Wine of the Eucharist
1485/1525
Southern Netherlands
Belgium
With its focus on the infant Christ squeezing grapes to make the Eucharistic wine, this small tapestry probably decorated a private oratory. The outer border of flowers and fruit is a later addition and is less finely woven than the holy figures and the inner border of a single pansy and rosebud.
Linen, wool, silk, and gilt-metal-strip-wrapped silk; slit tapestry weave. Warp: Count: 10 warps per cm; linen: S-ply of two Z-spun elements; diameters: 0.4–0.5 mm. Weft: Count: varies from 28 to 64 wefts per cm; wool: single Z-spun elements; S-ply of two Z-spun elements; pairs of S-ply of two Z-spun elements; diameters; 0.25–0.65 mm; silk: four elements possibly with a slight S- or slight Z-twist; three Z-twisted elements; S-ply of two Z-twisted elements; pairs of S-ply of two Z-twisted elements; three yarns of S-ply of two Z- twisted elements; Z-ply of two S-twisted elements; four yarns, two of S-ply of two Z-twisted elements and two of Z-ply of two S-twisted elements; two to four yarns of Z-ply of two and three S-twisted elements; diameters: 0.2–0.65 mm; wool and silk: paired yarns of S-ply of two Z-spun wool elements and S-ply of two Z-twisted silk elements; paired yarns of S-ply of two Z-twisted silk elements and Z-spun wool clement; diameters; 0.3–0.6 mm; gilt-metal-strip-wrapped silk: gilt-metal strips wrapped in an S-direction on an S-twisted silk element; S-ply of two yarns: each a Z-ply of two S-twisted yarns of gilt-metal strips wrapped in an S-direction on a Z-twisted silk element; diameters: 0.3–0.65 mm