Guy DELMARCEL
About the Agreement of 1476 between the Brussels<br /> Painters and Tapestry Weavers Concerning Cartoon<br /> Paintingn 1876, Alphonse Wauters, the archivist from the city of Brussels, published the first specific study devoted to the history of Brussels tapestries .[1] It was the outcome of his life long research in the city archives, and several very interesting documents were published in his book. Among them, he revealed an agreement made on June 6, 1476, between the painters and the tapestry weavers about the painting of cartoons.[2] Summarized in short, it tell us about a complaint of the painters against the weavers, because these last ones used some models (”patronen”) on paper , made by people who did not belong to the painters guild. In the agreement, the weavers got permission to make such cartoons, but with several limitations.
This document has often been cited in tapestry literature as an indirect proof of the pictorial qualities of Brussels tapestries from that period on.