After 27 years of work, last January, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure returned to Palazzo Vecchio in Florence ten precious tapestries belonging to the biblical cycle of the History of Joseph (Storie di Giuseppe ebreo).
The tapestries, depicting stories of the biblical patriarch, were created between 1545 and 1553, commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici.
This group is one of the greatest works of tapestry made in Italy during the Renaissance.
Since the late 19th century, the cycle has been split, with ten tapestries preserved in the Palazzo Vecchio, and ten in the Quirinale Palace in Rome, where they were exposed in 2010.
Those that remained in Florence were removed from the walls of the Sala dei Duecento in 1983 because they were in serious need of restoration – this began in 1985 and was completed in 2012. It was a very delicate and careful undertaking.
The ten tapestries together form an area of 220 square meters.
“The tapestries represent both the excellent quality of project design by Florentine painters, and the technical skills of Flemish weavers,” said the superintendent for the museums of Florence Cristina Acidini.
In conjuction with the return of the arazzi to Palazzo Vecchio, a book was also released documenting the extraordinary restoration, the longest ever made by the Opificio, which is a public institute of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage. “Gli arazzi con Storie di Giuseppe ebreo per Cosimo I de’ Medici” (Polistampa) reconstructs in detail the restoration work, and tells the story of these masterpieces, with lots of interesting and little-known aspects.
