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''The History of Constantine'' is a series of tapestries designed by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens and Italian artist Pietro da Cortona depicting the life of Constantine I, the first Christian emperor of Ancient Rome. In 1622, Rubens painted the first twelve oil sketches that were used as guides, and the tapestries themselves were woven in the workshop of Marc Comans and François de la Planche in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel in Paris by 1625, transforming each small sketch (perhaps two feet per side) into a sumptuous creation of wool, silk, and gold and silver threads that could easily fill a wall.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/57735.html )〕 An additional five designs were painted by Cortona in 1630 and woven in the atelier of Cardinal Francesco Barberini in Rome over the next decade. ==Historical information== The series was commissioned in 1622 when Rubens was in Paris discussing the paintings he was designing for the Luxembourg Palace for Marie de Médicis.〔 Although the popular consensus has long been that the tapestries were commissioned by Louis XIII, based upon a 1626 letter by Rubens, art historians have begun to question this conclusion in recent decades. New evidence, such the fact that the designs were listed as the property of de la Planche upon his death, establishing a weak form of copyright, has muddied the issue. One theory is that Rubens only cited the king as the commissioner of the tapestries in the aforementioned letter in order to increase their perceived importance because his payment was overdue. Financial evidence strongly indicates that Rubens himself ordered the cartoons from which the tapestries would be woven at the personal expense of 500 livres, making him a primary mover behind the project. Louis XIII's lack of investment in the project is indicated by the fact that he immediately gave the first seven tapestries completed to the papal legate Cardinal Barberini in 1625, even though Barberini was at first unwilling to accept so princely a gift. Barberini eventually acquiesced, and commissioned an additional five tapestries from Pietro da Cortona, another Baroque master who happened to be the artistic director of Barberini's newly founded atelier. He repeated only one design from the Rubens set, the apparition of the cross. Cortona also designed several smaller tapestries such as portieres and a baldachin to furnish an entire room, and painted the ceiling of the salon where they were displayed. The dossal he designed, featuring an immense golden statue of Constantine, hung behind the throne of Urban VIII, Barberini's uncle.〔 The life of the first Christian monarch would have special relevance for a king whose own father experienced such a notable conversion to Catholicism. While the subject matter could plausibly have been chosen by Louis XIII himself, it also may have been selected by Comans and de la Planche to appeal to him and earn Rubens a royal appointment. Rubens himself may have had a hand in deciding the theme, since his intense study of the classical era, including the acquisitions of many antiquities, made him very well suited to tackle the historical intricacies of the subject.〔 Rubens drew on Cardinal Cesare Baronio's ''Annales Ecclesiastici'' (1588–1607) for inspiration and historical detail. Baronio based his writings on the contemporary accounts of Eusebius. This third-hand information, coupled with his deep historical knowledge, enabled Rubens to craft scenes that were so accurate that Louis' inspectors lauded him for portraying so precisely "even the nails of the boots".〔 Rubens' designs proved highly popular and were woven several times by the Comans-La Planche workshop over the next decades, although they tended to evolve away from the originals. Cortona's tapestries were only woven once. The sole complete set remained with the Barberini collection in Rome until 1889. The tapestries were split up and passed through various hands before being reunited by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1959.〔 The sketches remain widely scattered, many of them in private hands. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The History of Constantine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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