Sicilian Tapestries from the 17th Century on Display at Villa Zito in Palermo

The exhibition 'EXEMPLA MORALIA. Sicilian embroidered tapestries of the 17th century' at Villa Zito in Palermo, curated by Maurizio Vitella with supervision from Maria Concetta Di Natale, showcases two major tapestries created between 1627 and 1629 by embroiderer Andrea Bolognese based on paintings by Gerardo Astorino, commissioned by noblewoman Giovanna Flavia Branciforti e Lanza. Astorino drew inspiration from Antonio Tempesta's 1606 engravings of Ovid's Metamorphoses, printed by Wilhelmus Janssonius. The tapestries, originally in Palazzo Mazzarino and acquired at auction in 1964, feature seven bands with mythological scenes including Arachne and Athena, and are part of a larger set that includes a third tapestry at Palazzo dei Normanni. The exhibition also includes small embroideries from the Witaker Foundation, paintings by Palma il Giovane and from the circle of Nicolas Poussin, a vermillion curtain from the late 15th century by a Flemish embroiderer, coral works from Sciacca and Trapani, and four early 18th-century altar frontals from the Diocesan Museum of Monreale made by young women of the Collegio di Maria, founded in 1724 by Alberto Greco Carlino. The show explores the female tradition of embroidery, referencing Ovid's myth of Arachne and the proto-feminist figure of Suor Arcangela Tarabotti.