Velázquez, Saint John in the Wilderness

Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness (1622)

Art Institute of Chicago

Diego Velázquez has painted Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness (ca 1622) on a canvas with a woven pattern.
(not to scale)
The painting is located in the collection of the Art Insitute of Chicago

handwoven reconstruction of the canvas at Lab O
a sample of this canvas is at the Paintings Conservation department at the AIC photo courtesy João Mariano

The story

After the reconstruction I had made of El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, I was curious if more paintings were on a patterned canvas.

I found this publication where a graphic of the pattern of the canvas was published

A 17th centuries weaving book, considered the very first weaving manual and the website, published by Kris Bruland, www.handweaving.net has been of great help

The computer generated weave draft was created with Weavelt, software developed to interface with computer-aided handlooms

handwoven reconstruction of the original canvas , woven on an AVL Compu Dobby loom connected to a Mac Plus device