The four Pastrana Tapestries are on view together for the first time in the United States at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, through January 8, 2012. Because of their outstanding quality and historical significance, the Spanish government listed them as cultural patrimony to be safeguarded during the Spanish Civil War.
Woven in the late 1400s, these monumental tapestries, each measuring 12 by 36 feet, depict Afonso V's conquest in 1471 of the Moroccan cities of Asilah and Tangier, located near the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. They are among the rarest and earliest examples of tapestries created to celebrate what were then contemporary events, instead of allegorical or religious subjects.
The exhibition, entitled The Invention of Glory: Alfonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries, is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid, in association with the Embassy of Spain, the Spain-USA Foundation, and the Embassy of Portugal and with the cooperation of the Embassy of Belgium and the Embassy of Morocco in Washington, DC, as well as the Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara and Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Pastrana, Spain.
Date: until January 8.
Place: The National Gallery of Art. 4th and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20565. USA.
Opening hours: from Monday to Saturday from 10am am to 5pm. Sundays from 11am to 6pm.
See the tapestries in detail in the following slideshow: