Tapices donados por los Reyes Católicos a la Capilla Real de Granada

Abstract

Among the principal items sent by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Royal Chapel in Granada were several Flemish tapestries. Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon acquired many pieces over the years, so that when the Queen died, she owned more than three hundred wall-hangings. Her husband decided to send twenty-two of them to the funerary chapel they had founded, and when he was close to death, he ordered four more to be sent from his own treasure. Nevertheless, changes occurred, and finally twenty-five pieces arrived at the Royal Chapel, but they were not all the same as those originally selected. Now, based on unpublished documents preserved in the Simancas Archive (Valladolid), it is possible to demonstrate for the first time exactly which and how many tapestries were actually sent, further revealing their true value in the treasures of the 15th and 16th centuries.