THE ENCHANTED GARDEN. An interactive journey through the millefleur tapestry

The millefleur tapestry as never before seen.

From 28 October 2023 to 29 February 2024, the Museo dell’Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi in Pistoia is hosting The Enchanted Garden. An interactive journey through the millefleur tapestry: an immersive installation that offers an unprecedented experience of the sixteenth-century Flemish masterpiece of textile art. For the first time, visitors can explore the work in its three dimensions.

The installation is a project by Fondazione Pistoia Musei and Fondazione Caript, conceived and realized in collaboration with the artistic collective camerAnebbia. The scientific content is curated by Annamaria Iacuzzi and Cristina Taddei, conservators from Fondazione Pistoia Musei, and Gaia Ravalli, art historian from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa under the supervision of Monica Preti, director of Pistoia Musei.

The millefleur tapestry of Pistoia, also called “of the Adoration”, in silk and wool, is a considerable size (267 x 790 cm). One of the most important works of art in the city, it depicts a refined garden in bloom, also populated by wild and fantastic animals, such as the unicorn.

The artefact, owned by the Cathedral of Pistoia and exhibited in the Museo dell’Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi since 2016, will be set up in one of the most representative rooms of the exhibition Favoloso Calvino. Il mondo come opera d’arte: Carpaccio, de Chirico, Gnoli, Melotti e gli altri showing at the Scuderie del Quirinale from 13 October 2023 to 4 February 2024.

The Enchanted Garden entails a large immersive projection that will reveal the secrets of the history and manufacture of the tapestry and provide a closer look at the subjects dedicated to flora and fauna from an unusual and innovative point of view.

Thanks to the interactive installation, visitors will be able to browse through the contents projected on the wall, generating a landscape of images for all the visitors to explore and enjoy. Exploration will differ each time depending on the themes chosen. This highly engaging creative and imaginative experience will reinforce the unique and precious nature of this fabulous artefact once again.

At the end of the Italo Calvino exhibition, when the tapestry is returned to the room in the Museo dell’Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi, the digital work can be shared with organisations, institutes and schools, to promote knowledge of the work and the Museum, offering new educational and cultural opportunities.