The magnificent St Paul tapestry commissioned by Henry VIII for Hampton Court Palace in 1536 is a national
treasure. It was taken from London to Barcelona in the late 1960s and has
remained in Spain ever since. Why was such an exceptional treasure given a
license to leave this country? The
answer, it appears, is that it did not have one; that was
exported illegally. Splendid, historically
important and technically innovative, the panel is currently back in London. Spain granted its private owner a temporary
license so that conservation work could be carried out by specialist dealers S Franses. They have put in on public view for the next two weeks. The final stage of conservation will then begin. The Spanish temporary
license expires in February. By every relevant measures of importance, the St
Paul tapestry belongs here. It should in England where it could join the
National Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum or, better still, hang once again at Hampton
Court.
Some 20-feet long, woven during the Renaissance in Brussels
at the height of weavers’ skills, richly embellished with gold-wrapped
thread, it is a fabulous piece that only a king could afford. This surely was obvious to the Vigo-Sternberg-Galleries, top dealers in tapestries, where the work was seen shortly before it
arrived in Spain. Its money value in 1970 was least $8,000,
an additional reason an export license would have been required. (Today, on the
open international market, it would be £10million or more.) Indeed, its evident splendour and value is one
reason that more recently, Spain has twice refused its owner’s application for
a full export license. This far no record that a license
was requested or issued has turned up. According to the S Franses Gallery, Wendy Hefford, tapestry specialist at
the V& A when it left England and the expert most likely to be asked to judge its suitability for
export, says she never saw it.
This St Paul panel is
the “It is the Holy Grail of Tudor
Tapestries,” says Thomas P. Campbell, a former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and leading authority on Renaissance
tapestries; author of the brilliantly researched “Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty: Tapestries at the Tudor Court.” Originally there were nine tapestries in the
St Paul set. This rare survival, all on its own, gives a vivid pictorial expression
of the king’s thinking and state of mind at a tumultuous period in his reign and
the country’s history--the dissolution of the
monasteries.
Campbell explains that Henry VIII wished to “present himself as head
of the British church, a religious man.
He wanted to show that he was in direct succession to Abraham, Joshua, David,
Moses and St. Paul.” In this work St Paul
is shown directing the burning of irreligious texts; an act Henry VIII was then overseeing in
England. The smoke that billows up in
the centre of the tapestry—wonderful and terrible-- is evidence of destruction
in the service of religion and power. It is also an aesthetic and technical triumph.
Go see it at the gallery. With any luck it will remain at home in England for all to see in years to come.
Tomorrow (Saturday) Campbell will be giving a lecture on Henry VIII's tapestry collection at the Royal Academy of Art. (Tickets, which are free, are available through the Franses gallery..)
