John the Baptist

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The voice of one crying in the. wilderness, Prepare ye the way of. the Lord, make his paths straight.

Matthew 3:3

John the Baptist was an important figure in Christian art as he was the first to recognise Jesus as the Messiah. He was called the Forerunner, or the one who showed the way of the Messiah. The Old Testament prototype of John was thought to be the prophet Elijah. John the Baptist was the third cousin and forerunner of Jesus. According to prophetic tradition he came out of the wilderness, announcing the coming of the Messiah and preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. At the Jordan River he acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, baptised him and pointed him out to his disciples as the Lamb of God.

Research

Technical and technological research is nesessary before conservation. During microscopic examinations, we examine the parameters of the sampled threads, their nature and state of preservation. High-performance liquid chromatography and molecular spectroscopy are used to determine the nature of the dyes used in the dyeing of the fibres and threads. The results are taken into account in the designing the conservation programme.

Examination results

Birds and plants

The tradition of depicting plants and animals with symbolic meaning dates back to Antiquity. In the late Middle Ages, plants on tapestries were created with amazing botanical precision. And if initially, they served only for decoration, in the 16th -18th centuries they became a treasure trove of symbols, especially in religious scenes. The grassy carpet at the feet of the saints is truly a botanical reference book. The borders of the tapestries, which are usually treated as a secondary ornamental frame of the main image, conceal many symbols and allegories in both plant and animal imagery. Weavers skillfully wove fruits, leaves and stylized images of birds into flower garlands. Moreover, tapestries feature not only local animal and plant species, but also exotic ones brought from faraway countries and grown with love ad care in the gardens and parks of Europe.

Tapestry weaving techniques

Tapestries are woven rugs created by the combined efforts of cartoonists, dyers and weavers; for centuries they have been remarkable in their artistic integrity, exceptional craftsmanship and the highest quality of the materials used in their creation. The art of the weaver was to reproduce multi-figure colourful compositions in the fabric by traditionally intertwining the weft threads with the main threads. Thanks to the excellent execution, medieval masters created colour transitions, contours, volumes and achieved expressiveness of lines and colours of future compositions.