The combination of the decorative arts with literature and creative writing has given rise to many classic stories and novels whose theme is a painting or an artifact. Others have used the tapestry as a metaphor to imply the fabric of a tale, and using the tapestry as the subject of a story has strengthened the power of the tapestry to tell a legend or story through a magnificent painting. When we think about what it is about the tapestry that inspires those to write and use the craft in literature, there is the weaving element of words intertwining to form a tale. Of course, there may be a story hidden between the stitches of a tapestry waiting to be told or imagined and recreated. Just as the tapestry is created with fine stitching, stories unfold through the connection of ideas.
Endless stories on the walls
The Tapestry House was first written by Mrs. Molesworth in 1879 and centers on a little girl who lives in a house where one of the rooms is covered in tapestries. In fact, her maid says that “there are endless stories on the walls of the tapestry room.” Viewing the tapestry in the moonlight sees you enveloped in natural beauty and creatures that come to life. Imagine a peacock coming out of a tapestry! A magical tale is woven that ignites the imagination of those who contemplate a tapestry and wonder what the painting really means.
Patrick Atagan’s Silk Tapestry tells the story of an old woman, a boy, and a wild spirit who combine to change the world around them in this enchanting Chinese folk tale. The completion of a magical tapestry is a central element of the story and enhances the mystique surrounding the ancient, faded tapestries and the tale woven into the fabric.
tapestry inspired
Famous tapestries and paintings are known to inspire writers to create novels from the sight they perceive. One of the best known tapestry-related novels is Tracey Chevalier’s The Lady and the Unicorn, which was inspired by the famous panels depicting the six senses and is now on display at the Cluny Museum. Each panel features the Lady and a Unicorn and is themed on a sense such as sight or hearing. The story unfolds when a Nobleman from Paris commissions a set of six tapestries to impress and the young weaver, wanting to change the creation of battle scenes, designs the Unicorn panels, all representing an aspect of the six senses. Love, friendships and rivalries are woven into the story, as well as historical investigations into the lives of dyers and weavers of the time. It is, in effect, a tapestry upon a tapestry.
Using a different but powerful perspective, Marjory Agosin in her book Tapestries of Hope, Threads of Love 1974-1994 tells the stories of countless women living in poverty and hardship in Chile under the Pinochet regime. In one of the most spectacular protests, the omens created arpilleras, or patchwork tapestries from everyday life, embroidering their pain on the fabric as they told the story of their missing relatives. Smuggled out of Chile, these tapestries expressed the fruitless searches to the world. In a way that conveyed great emotion and feeling, these stories told through the tapestry told a very different kind of narrative in a powerful and compelling way.
tapestry as metaphor
Tapestry involves weaving and creating an image or pieces that come together to form a larger perspective. Tapestry has been used in the title of several detective novels and thrillers to imply a mysterious aspect. In fantasy novels, the tapestry is evident in titles like Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Trilogy, perhaps implying a mysterious interweaving of ideas. Like tapestry panels like the classic Unicorn series, a trilogy also combines a series of novels into one story larger than a picture or book can contain.
Combining the creative arts
Writing and literature express creative ideas and imaginations. In early medieval times, before the development of literacy and mass-produced books, the tapestry was used to tell a story to the masses, like the Bayeux tapestries. That tapestry found in literature and storytelling is not unusual but a powerful combination of the creative arts that is most accessible in the information age. Tapestry will continue to have a timeless, classic appeal and will continue to be an inspiration to those who wish to be creative in thought and action.