Image: Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham has begun conserving ‘An Allegory of Geometry’, a large Flemish tapestry acquired by the institution’s founder, Lady Barber. The work is being treated during the closure of the institute’s building and is expected to return to display when the galleries reopen, although no reopening or redisplay date has been announced.
Measuring approximately 12 and a half by 11 feet, the tapestry was woven in wool and silk in a Flemish workshop around 1660. It belongs to a now dispersed series representing the ‘Seven Liberal Arts’, made to designs by Cornelis Schut, the leading Antwerp artist who lived from 1597 to 1655.
The Barber describes the tapestry as a work of international importance and one of the most significant returns anticipated after the building’s closure. Its conservation forms part of a wider effort to care for the institute’s collection while its building is undergoing transformation. The Barber Institute is part of the University of Birmingham and holds collections spanning paintings, drawings, prints, coins, sculpture and decorative art.
Before the current repair work began, the tapestry was washed by a specialist Belgian company. The treatment has revealed what the institute describes as its rich palette and fine details. Textile conservator Melanie Leach has now started the slower stage of the process: making new repairs and removing older interventions that have become unsightly.
Lady Barber purchased the tapestry at a country-house sale around 1918. According to the institute, she displayed it on the grand staircase of her residence, Culham Court, near Henley-on-Thames. Its connection with her personal collection gives the work a particular place in the history of the Barber Institute, which identifies Lady Barber as its founder.
The tapestry’s subject derives from the medieval and early modern tradition of depicting the liberal arts—disciplines associated with the education of the mind—although the supplied material does not specify the composition’s individual figures or imagery. The wider series to which it belonged has since been dispersed, leaving ‘An Allegory of Geometry’ as a surviving part of a larger decorative and intellectual programme.
The institute has said that the tapestry’s eventual redisplay will serve as a tribute to Lady Barber’s profound appreciation of tapestries and textiles. The conservation will continue as the Barber prepares its galleries for reopening.
