A valuable tapestry, the coronation carpet of Joseph I from the 17th century, was kept rolled up for a long time under poor conditions. This resulted in large flaws caused by mice and other damage. Monica Paredis-Vroon, textile conservator at the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, has developed an unusual reconstruction method. One of the basic rules of conservation is to leave imperfections neutral, because you don’t know exactly how and […]
A valuable tapestry, the coronation carpet of Joseph I from the 17th century, was kept rolled up for a long time under poor conditions. This resulted in large flaws caused by mice and other damage. Monica Paredis-Vroon, textile conservator at the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, has developed an unusual reconstruction method.
One of the basic rules of conservation is to leave imperfections neutral because it is not known exactly how and what was depicted. However, even if the original depiction is known, the technical conditions of textile production often hinder restoration. The emergence of photo prints on canvas in recent years, which are offered cheaply in many photo stores, gave rise to the idea of using them to restore a badly damaged tapestry to its original appearance. The tapestry was originally made in 1687 for the coronation of the Hungarian king, as can be seen from the embroidered “Rex Ungariae” on the other tapestries in this series. In addition to a complete double regalia, a canopy and a monstrance stand, this gift also included this tapestry decoration for the walls of the choir. The middle section of a series of five tapestries measures around 100 x 484 cm and has the symbol of Joseph I as a different central motif: a sword wrapped in an olive tendril under the All-Seeing Eye of God. Like all the other parts, the decoration also consists of a scroll held by two eagles bearing fruit and wreaths, which convey the corresponding motto: AMORE ET TIMORE (Love and Fear). Figures of women and putti are depicted on the left and right, allegorically referring to the motto. At each end is a putti, on the left with the Hungarian coat of arms and on the right with the Austrian shield. The lower edge is edged with a woolen fabric. The selvedge has been cut off. The carpet is made of wool woven in plain weave. The warp is white, with approximately 7 threads per cm. The weft threads are dark brown, rust brown and ochre as well as various shades of beige, with 28-32 threads per cm (Fig. 1).
The back sheet is in very poor condition. The fabric has open galen (horizontal color transitions in tapestries that are manually sewn during the production process), entire sections of silk and dark-colored wool have fallen out, rusty nails, nail holes, moth remains, dirt and stains reflect a damaged image. The holes caused by mice are particularly striking: it appears that the back sheet was rolled up and that one or more mice nested in this bale. As the rodents have gnawed their way through six layers, there are holes in the carpet that decrease in size approximately every 80 cm. In the left-hand section, the missing areas extend right up to the edge, which means that the coherence of the tapestry has been completely lost (Fig. 2).
The tapestries in this series are all almost five meters wide. This means that they do not fit between the pillars of the Aachen Cathedral polygon and could only be hung on the two straight walls on either side of the choir. The central part was probably not used very often. This could explain why it was stored separately, as this one tapestry is damaged. It is unclear when this happened. When it was first viewed in 1990, there was no longer any foul animal odor, so the mice infestation must have occurred some time ago. In Faymonville’s “Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Aachen” (Karl Faymonville, Düsseldorf, Schwann, 1916, p. 172) from 1916, however, there is no mention of this. A vacuum cleaner was used to clean the object; washing was out of the question, partly due to its fragile condition. To support and visually close the imperfections, a linen fabric was not dyed in a mid-tone of the carpet’s color scale, as is often the case. This type of reconstruction would have emphasized the size of the imperfections. Since there are several tapestries with an almost identical pattern, a photo print on canvas with the right structure could close the gaps in a more appropriate way.
However, there are no studies on the chemical effects of the photo layer on the surrounding material. However, the ageing of these photos on canvas should be fine under climate-controlled conditions, especially as they are only exhibited for a limited time. A color-matching buffer layer of synthetic felt, sewn between the tapestry and the photo print, should also prevent direct contact. In order to implement the proposal, professional photographs first had to be taken of the areas on the four other carpets that correspond to the missing areas. The missing part in the central area, which shows the sword entwined with an olive tendril, was completed using Photoshop (Figs. 3 and 4).
The greatest difficulty was achieving the correct color tone for the photo print, but this was achieved thanks to the technical efforts of the photo lab. The variant with the most suitable color was given an additional layer of dyed silk crepeline to make it fit properly. A support lining under all layers is intended to provide support. The photo prints were fixed under the holes with so-called tension stitches, i.e. long stitches that are held in place with small overlock stitches (so that no punctual tension is caused) and sewing threads in a matching color (Fig. 5).
The buffering felt can be trimmed at the edges, the photo prints and the support lining are cut back and stapled at the back. The edges with many nail holes are underlaid and fixed with a firm twill tape. There are also many areas of iron oxide dyed, fancy wool on the upper edge. Here, a strip of linen is dyed in a matching dark brown and attached with tension stitches to close the many gaps. Finally, a Velcro strip is sewn on so that the back sheet can be hung up easily and without creases.
