The castle is a place where the medieval and modern meet – as our new exhibition of contemporary European tapestry goes to prove. It includes more than 50 pieces created by talented weavers, mostly women, from countries such as the UK, Denmark and Germany.
I highlight the fact that many of the weavers are female because it’s something that has changed over the centuries. One of the most exciting projects at the castle right now is the weaving of new versions of The Hunt of the Unicorn series of tapestries, dating from around 1500 – and visitors can see one being made, as well as viewing four that are complete. The makers of the originals, it seems, would have been men.
Other things have changed as well, for example, the price. Tapestries in the 16th century were often huge, ours measure up to 3.8m high, as they acted as draft excluders, as well as to looking beautiful and showing off the wealth and good taste of their owners. A king or queen could expect to pay the same for a series of tapestries as for the building of an entire warship. The ones in the exhibition, entitled Warp/Weft: Near/Far are rather more affordable – even taking into account that they are much smaller, measuring up to 80cm in height.
All the exhibits have been created by members of the British Tapestry Group, the European Tapestry Forum steering group, and members of WEST, who are professional tapestry weavers from the West Country. The exhibition is included in the entry price to the castle and continues until early April.
Movie news
Our latest movie about the progress in refurbishing the castle’s royal palace – which opens in June – is proving a hit on YouTube with well over 1,000 viewers in its first week. Called An Artistic Alliance it contains interviews with some of the highly skilled artists involved in creating the beautiful new palace decorations and can be seen at www.youtube.com/historicscotlandtv. It’s our second film about the palace project, the first having been watched around 3,650 times so far – with the numbers climbing steadily.
Gillian Macdonald, Executive Manager