Restoring Bess of Hardwick’s tapestries

Having commented further on the surviving tapestry from the set illustrating the life of St Paul ordered by King Henry VIII it seems suitable to link to the restoration of the largest set of tapestries to survive from sixteenth century England.

These are at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire where  they were hung in 1592 by the builder of that remarkable house, the equally remarkable Elizabeth Countess of Shrewsbury - Bess of Hardwick. This set of tapestries also has a Biblical narrative, the story of Gideon. They have hung in the Long Gallery on the top floor since they were acquired, but a twenty four year long programme of cleaning, conservation and repair of the set has now been completed by the National Trust.

The BBC News website reports on this notable  achievement at Historic tapestries unveiled after 24-year project

I have visited Hardwick Hall over many years and it remains a remarkable insight not just into Elizabethan aristocratic life but into the very distinctive attitudes of the formidable Countess. She can well be seen as the woman who established the Cavendish family, from her second marriage, on their path to power and prestige and who showed how a woman could exercise significant economic independence and assume a political role in her locality. Her tough mindedness and determination are apparent, and triumphantly expressed in her spectacular house.

There is a history of the Hall from Wikipedia at Hardwick Hall and there is more about it in an online piece by Sophie Ploeg, which adds more about the origin of the Long Gallery tapestries with Sir Christopher Hatton who sold them to the Countess from his house at Holdenby in Northamptonshire, at Hardwick Hall

Hatdwick Hall

Image: Sophie Ploeg.com