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Antique tapestry constitutes some of the greatest examples of decorative textile art in the world. Traditionally woven by hand on a loom, tapestries created by artisans from the Middle Ages and Renaissance-era Europe are among the finest and most exquisite found anywhere.

Browse this gallery and admire this thread of images weaved together for you to admire and contemplate.

▲This 16th-century Flemish wool tapestry was probably woven in the Belgian city of Tournai, then a booming textile hub. Admire it at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

▲The four surviving fragments of this early 11th-century mural tapestry—the second oldest known European tapestry still existing—are located in museums in Berlin, Nuremburg, and London's Victoria and Albert. The largest fragment is on display at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Lyon, France.

▲This Byzantine-era pagan tapestry was made in Egypt in the 6th century CE. The design is a late representation of the Greek goddess Hestia. It is now in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection in Washington, D.C.

▲The Hunts of Maximilien is a set of 12 delicately woven tapestries, each depicting a different hunting scene symbolizing a different month of the calendar. The Month of September (pictured) is on display at the Louvre in Paris.

▲These are a series of eight tapestries designed between 1720 and 1730. Pictured is the Le Cheval Fondu tapestry, from the Barlatier de Mas Collection in Sotogrande, Spain.

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The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries are a group of outstanding Flemish tapestries dating back to the 15th century. They are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

▲On special occasions hung in the Sistine Chapel below Michelangelo's famous ceiling, the tapestries are based on cartoons designed by Raphael in 1515-16.

▲Compare this cartoon, The Death of Ananias, with the previous tapestry image to get an idea of how Raphael's work was used as reference.

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Ten cartoons were originally commissioned by Pope Leo X. Seven cartoons survive, including this one, St Paul Preaching in Athens. They can all be admired at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

▲Dating back to the late 13th century, this rare example of medieval Swedish textile art is made of a mixture of linen and wool, and woven in soumak technique.

▲Part of the tapestry depicts three prominent figures, representations perhaps of Nordic saint kings? Make your own mind up at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.

▲Considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe, the series of six tapestries known as The Lady and the Unicorn were woven in Flanders from wool and silk in the early 16th century.

▲Five of the tapestries depict the five senses; the sixth, love or understanding. The set is on display at the Musée National du Moyen Âge in Paris.

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The Apocalypse Tapestry is a huge medieval French set of tapestries produced between 1377 and 1382.

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Commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou, it is on display at Musée de la Tapisserie in Angers, France.

▲Woven in Brussels or Antwerp in the late 16th century, theses are a series of eight tapestries depicting royal court festivities.

▲This tapestry depicts entertainment at Fontainebleau in 1564, including the mock rescue of damsels held captive on an enchanted island.

▲This example depicts festivities at the meeting of the Valois and Habsburg courts at Bayonne in 1565. The tapestries are now stored at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, but are not usually on public display.

▲Woven in the Netherlands and Flanders, and also known as the Wawel arrasses, this tapestry collection dates back to the mid-16th century.

▲Originally consisting of 365 pieces, the tapestries were made to decorate the interiors of the royal residence at Wawel Castle in Kraków, Poland.

▲Today, 136 pieces are still displayed at Wawel. Other pieces are exhibited in Warsaw's royal castle, and Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum owns a single example.

▲Dating back to the early 16th century, this spectacular series of seven tapestries remains one of the most important examples of late medieval/early Renaissance art.

▲The scenes depict a group of noblemen and hunters in pursuit of a unicorn through a French landscape.

▲Woven in wool, metallic threads, and silk, all seven tapestries hang in The Cloisters museum in New York City.

▲Arguably the most famous tapestry in the world, the Bayeux Tapestry is, in fact, an embroidered cloth rather than a woven tapestry.

▲An extraordinary and rare example of secular Romanesque art, the cloth is nearly 70 m (230 ft) in length, and depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.

▲Most scholars agree that the tapestry dates back to the 11th century, and that it was made in England.

▲The tapestry is exhibited at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux in Bayeux, France.

▲Discovered as recently as 1983, this ancient woolen wall hanging was found at the Tarim Basin settlement of Shanpula in China.

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Dating back from the 3rd century BCE to the 4th century CE, the tapestry is on display at the Xinjiang Museum in Ürümqi, China.