Series of tapestries depicting the legend of the Holy Grail
The Holy Grail or San Graal tapestries are a set of six
tapestries depicting scenes from the legend of
King Arthur and the quest for the
Holy Grail. The tapestries were commissioned from
Morris & Co. by
William Knox D'Arcy in 1890 for his dining room at Stanmore Hall,[1] outside London.[2][3] Additional versions of the tapestries with minor variations were woven on commission by Morris & Co. over the next decade.
The series
The six original tapestries illustrate the story of the Grail quest as told in Sir
Thomas Malory's 1485 book Le Morte d'Arthur. Like other Morris & Co. tapestries, the Holy Grail sequence was a group effort, with overall composition and figures designed by
Edward Burne-Jones,
heraldry by
William Morris, and foreground florals and backgrounds by
John Henry Dearle.[2][3] The narrative panels were accompanied by smaller verdure or woodland panels featuring deer, the knights' shields hung on trees, and text telling the story of the panel hung above. The sequence was worked over a period of five years, from 1891 to 1894, at
Merton Abbey. The Attainment was the first of the series to be completed, and was shown at the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1893.[2]
The Failure of Sir
Launcelot to enter the Chapel of the Holy Grail
The Failure of Sir
Gawaine: Sir Gawaine and Sir Uwaine at the Ruined Chapel
The Ship
The Attainment: The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir
Galahad, Sir
Bors, and Sir
Perceval (also known as The Achievement of the Grail or The Achievement of Sir Galahad, accompanied by Sir Bors, and Sir Perceval)[2][3][4]
Textile historian Linda Parry wrote of the series "their design, decoration and weaving establish them, beyond doubt, as the most significant tapestry series woven in the nineteenth century."[2]
The original set of tapestries remained at Stanmore Hall until D'Arcy's death in 1920. They were subsequently sold and dispersed. Morris & Co. wove a second subset of the narrative panels in 1895 and 1896 for the drawing room at Compton Hall, Lawrence Hodson's seat near
Wolverhampton. A third complete set was woven for
George McCulloch in 1898 and 1899. Some hangings from these subsequent weavings are in the
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.[2][5] Others are in the collection of
Andrew Lloyd Webber.[6] The Stanmore Hall weaving of The Attainment was purchased by guitarist
Jimmy Page in 1978; the piece failed to meet its reserve at auction in 2008 and remains in Page's collection.[7][8]
Gallery
The Summons
The Failure of Sir Launcelot
The Attainment or The Achievement of the Grail, version woven 1895-96, now in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
The Failure of Sir Gawaine
The Ship
Detail of verdure panel with deer and shields
The Arming of the Knights and its verdure panel in the dining room at Stanmore Hall, 1898
The Failure of Sir Launcelot and verdure panel, Stanmore Hall, 1898
The Attainment, Stanmore Hall, 1898. The original weaving of this panel was shaped to fit over the doorway.
Notes
^Stanmore Hall, a
Gothic Revival house of the 1840s, stood in
Stanmore, Middlesex, northwest of London; commissions at Stanmore are discussed by Susan Moore, "The Marxist and the Oilman: Morris & Co. at Stanmore Hall", Country Life, 178, no. 4604 (14 November 1985:1494-96).
Fairclough, Oliver and Emmeline Leary, Textiles by William Morris and Morris & Co. 1861–1940, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, 1981,
ISBN0-89860-065-0