Raphael Tapestries

Tapestries seen on the lower part of the Sistine Chapel

For the first time in centuries, 10 magnificent tapestries designed by Renaissance master Raphael will hang together on the walls of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. The tapestries are usually only displayed on rotation in the "Raphael Room" at the Vatican Museum. But to mark the celebration of 500 years of Raphael's death, they are being brought together for one week to share the beauty that is represented by the tapestry together in this beautiful, universal place that is the Sistine Chapel. Pope Leo X commissioned Raphael to design the tapestries in 1515. Michelangelo had just finished his elaborate work on the ceiling and the pontiff wanted to ensure the lower walls weren't bare. Raphael painted 10 intricate images that depicted the lives of Saints Peter and Paul, now known as the Raphael Cartoons. The cartoons were then sent to the workshop of master weaver Pieter van Aelst in Brussels to be woven into tapestries.

Tapestry of Peter and the apostles fishing

The first tapestries were delivered to the chapel in late December 1519, however, Raphael died months later and did not see all the tapestries completed and together. So here we are, centuries later, and after a decade of restoration, the tapestries will hang this week where they were intended, below Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel ceiling and near his "The Last Judgment." Raphael and Michelangelo were rivals for the Vatican's commissions. Michelangelo was known to accuse Raphael, nearly a decade his junior, of plagiarizing his style. Only seven of the original cartoons exist and are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where they have been preserved since 1865.

Raphael's tapestries hanging in the Sistine Chapel