This is the Spanish version of the Threads of Splendor exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Royal Palace in Madrid in 2007 and 2008. It brought together key works produced by the European manufactories–Brussels, Delft, Florence, Rome, Munich, Paris and Mortlake–during their height of splendour with the involvement of artists such as Rubens, Jordaens, Cortona, Romanelli, Vouet and Lebrun.

The works shown provide a broad overview of artistic trends that attests to the pomp of the European courts of the seventeenth century and the political use of the decorative arts in the Baroque. The exhibition pays special attention to pieces from the Spanish royal collection, such as the series on the Battles of Archduke Albert, the Story of the Roman Consul Decius Mus and the Triumph of the Eucharist, the most splendid set of Baroque tapestries commissioned by Isabella Clara Eugenia.

Thomas P. Campbell has been director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art between 2008 and 2017, after holding the post of curator of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. His studies in this field have led to the major exhibitions Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (New York, 2002) and Tapestry in the Baroque. Threads of Splendor (New York, 2007; Madrid, 2008).