APOLLO MAGAZINE By Eve M. Kahn, June 2017
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The Crucifixion from ‘Scenes from the Life of Christ’ (1647–48), Rome, series designed by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli. Cathedral of St John the Divine New York |
For a century, tapestries woven in 17th-century Rome have hung between the stained-glass windows of the limestone sanctuary of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in Manhattan. Commissioned by the Barberini family in the 1640s, the set’s 12 panels depict episodes in Christ’s life. The cathedral is currently hosting the first major exhibition about the series, ‘The Barberini Tapestries: Woven Monuments of Baroque Rome’ (it travels this autumn to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon in Eugene). [
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