Twelve weavers, two years, one tapestry.
Graham Sutherland’s Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph is the centrepiece of Coventry Cathedral.
At 23 metres tall, it is the largest tapestry in the UK, and it was woven by twelve women.
It was made at the Pinton Frères workshop in Felletin, France, where the twelve weavers worked for over two years. Woven by hand in one continuous piece on a 500-year-old loom, it is made of wool weft on cotton warp. It measures 23 by 12 metres, roughly the size of a tennis court, and contains around 900 colours.
When it was installed in 1962, it was the largest tapestry in the world, and it remains one of the largest ever woven on a single loom. Combining medieval symbolism with modern artistry, it is a landmark of 20th-century religious art and a defining work of both Sutherland’s career and the Cathedral itself.
The Cathedral’s architect, Basil Spence, recalled ordering a trial piece of one of the beasts and the weavers producing “a masterpiece” (Phoenix at Coventry, 1962).
The tapestry shows that a great work of art is also a work of hands. It records the skill of twelve women, whose patient weaving is part of the Cathedral’s story.
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