QUEVEDO AND THE ART OF TAPESTRY: THE ROMANCE «MATRACA DE LOS PAÑOS Y SEDAS»

Abstract

Within Quevedo’s gallery of artistic poems, the mock-romance “Matraca de los paños y sedas” relates to the art of tapestry, according to various embodiments that are examined in this study: the interesting ekphrasis of the arazzi series on Carlos V’s undertaking in Tunis, woven by the Willem de Pannemaker workshop, giving rise to an acute reflection on the paragone between painting and tapestry, and finally it presents a brief Parnassus of painters that provides a glimpse of Quevedo’s pictorial canon.