Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries

Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries offers visitors an in-depth look at a rare, complete set of tapestries in the museum’s collection that has not been displayed since 1953 because of the tapestries’ fragile condition. Each tapestry depicts seasonal activities: fishing and gardening (Spring), grain harvesting (Summer), wine making (Autumn), and ice skating (Winter). When viewed together, the tapestries represent a full cycle of life. Taking the “four seasons” motif as inspiration, this exhibition tells the story of the life of the tapestries through four themes—their initial design and production, subsequent reproduction and alteration, later acquisition by the museum, and recent conservation treatment by tapestry conservation specialists in Belgium, at Royal Manufacturers De Wit, under the supervision of the CMA’s textile conservator. The exhibition also offers an in-depth look at the difficult craft of tapestry conservation, including its ethics, techniques, and concerns.

The video below, created for the exhibition, explores how the Four Seasons tapestries were cleaned and restored at Royal Manufacturers De Wit., a tapestry conservation studio in Belgium.