Don Quixote Tilting at Windmills, from “Don Quixote in Grotesques” 1669 - 1679

Curator: What a whimsical scene! It's bursting with flora, fantastical creatures, and figures in Renaissance garb—the palette is remarkably light for the intensity of action. Editor: And what intense action! It reminds me of looking at a wild, extravagant garden, but suddenly realizing there's a whole play being staged within it. We're looking at "Don Quixote Tilting at Windmills, from 'Don Quixote in Grotesques,'" created anonymously between 1669 and 1679. This tapestry, residing here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, showcases Don Quixote's famous, or rather infamous, windmill encounter. Curator: It’s fascinating to see the character immortalized in thread like this. Thinking about the labor, the weaving...tapistry in this era were often a luxury item commissioned by wealthy patrons, intended to insulate the massive stone walls of castles and estates. Woven narrative elevated the art of keeping warm. Editor: Exactly! It's so interesting to see something considered “decorative” depicting something as rambunctious as this scene! This tapestry breathes humor—Don Quixote looks ever the deluded hero. Curator: He truly does. And observe how the artist uses different textures to render each character, each horse, the landscape. You have densely woven sections, with very little of the warp showing through to the looser floral borders. In other words, you get visual hierarchies reinforcing social ones! The story foregrounded, decoration lingering around the edges. Editor: Yes! A narrative in decoration! I'm just captured by how much they manage to convey with so little depth—almost a flattened perspective, which makes it even more lively and theatrical, don't you think? It makes the landscape read like it's a backdrop on a stage. Curator: I completely agree. The limitations imposed by weaving, actually opened creative possibilities. This would have been an object both beautiful to look at and imbued with didactic function, a literal illustration of contemporary literary trends woven into the very walls of a home. I wonder about the craftspeople that executed these detailed works and what their daily life may have been like? Editor: Oh, that’s wonderful to consider...I'm finding I'm captivated, lost in a story told on a wall... with threads. And maybe that’s a story that’s as much about dreams as it is about delusions?