Vertical panels with garland

Art Historical Context

These elegant vertical tapestry panels, titled *Vertical Panels with Garland*, exemplify the opulent artistry of 18th-century France. Produced by the prestigious Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins in Paris, they were designed between 1758 and 1767—during the lavish reign of Louis XV—and meticulously woven from wool and silk between 1764 and 1771. The collaborative effort involved artists like Jacques Neilson and Maurice Jacques, architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot, and English patron George William Coventry, the 6th Earl of Coventry, reflecting international tastes in luxury decoration. Crafted with exceptional finesse (22–24 warps per inch), these tall, slender panels—each measuring nearly 10 feet high by 33 inches wide—feature cascading floral garlands, a motif celebrating nature's abundance in the grand French tradition. Gobelins tapestries, favored by royalty and aristocracy, were woven on low-warp looms by skilled artisans, blending vibrant silk highlights with durable wool for sumptuous interiors like chateaux walls or overdoors. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department (gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1958), these panels highlight the cultural prestige of Parisian textile mastery, bridging Rococo exuberance and emerging Neoclassicism. They invite visitors to imagine them adorning Coventry's English estate or a French salon, where flowers symbolized enduring elegance and refinement.