This seminar is an introduction to seventeenth-century Flemish and French Tapestry. The attention will be focused on the sets designed by Rubens, in particular his Constantine series, and the entrepreneurial strategies devised by Brussels and Parisian tapestry producers active between about 1600 and 1700. The course aims at a better understanding of the complex methodological issues characterizing the ongoing debate on European tapestry production and markets in the seventeenth century. The seminar will be linked to the exhibition Threads of Splendor. Tapestry in the Baroque that will be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 15, 2007 - January 6. 2008).