People in The Tapestries
Most of the full-length figures in the foreground of the tapestries are recognisable as members of the French royal family and court. François, duke of Anjou, is featured prominently in some of the tapestries; and Catherine de' Medici, dressed in her widow's black, occupies the central position in all of the tapestries except one. Catherine's daughter Marguerite de Valois can also be seen.
One absentee from the tapestries is King Charles IX of France, who was on the throne at the time of the events depicted, but who had died (1574) by the time the hangings were woven. Yates speculates that the Protestant creators of the tapestries deliberately cut him out because of his involvement in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, in which thousands of French Protestants, or Huguenots, were slaughtered on his orders. Antoine Caron's original drawings for the tapestries, of which six survive, show Charles taking part in the festivities. It is the later artist who removes Charles from the designs and adds the figures in the foreground who relate to the court of Charles's successor Henry III.
Read more about this topic: Valois Tapestries
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