Book excerpt: "This lavishly illustrated book presents a rich variety of European tapestries from the Art Institute of Chicago. These exquisite examples of the art of tapestry weaving include medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque works manufactured at many of the foremost workshops in the major centers of production. Among the pieces discussed are The Annunciation, a Renaissance masterpiece designed by an artist in the circle of Andrea Mantegna; The Story of Caesar and Cleopatra, a magnificent series of fourteen tapestries now attributed with certainty to Justus van Egmont, who worked in Rubens's studio; Autumn and Winter, based on designs by Charles Le Bron; and The Elephant, woven after a design by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer. An international team of scholars explains the history of this previously unpublished collection and offers new designer and workshop attributions, design and source identifications, and provenance information." --Book Jacket.