Reversing the Tapestry:Prison of Lovein Text, Image, and Textile

• Published in: Renaissance quarterly Vol. 64; no. 4; pp. 1059 - 1105
• Main Author: Francomano, Emily C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Renaissance Society of America 01.12.2011
• Subjects: Language translation; Love; Narratives; Pardons; Prison art; Prisons; Romantic literature; Studies; Tapestry; Woodcuts; Written narratives
• DOI: 10.1086/664085
• ISSN: 0034-4338

In the 1520s the internationally popular romancePrison of Lovewas adapted as a series of tapestries known asL'Histoire de Lérian et Lauréolle. This article explores the translation of the romance to a larger-than-life, three-dimensional narrative object created from sumptuous materials that literally enveloped courtly life. Unlike previous studies ofPrison of Love's international reach, this article reads the tapestry chamber as an integral part of the romance's complex history of transmission among the princely courts of Europe in the early sixteenth century. Further, study of the textiles’ production, use, and reception will show that the tapestry chamber, though incomplete, is material evidence of a particular sixteenth-century reading of the romance.