After 50 years, Arthur Boyd tapestries go on display

Completed half a century ago, Australian artist Arthur Boyd's monumental tapestries are finally on display together for the first time.

The renowned painter's Life of St Francis tapestries were woven at the Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre workshop in Portugal and completed in 1974, then acquired for the national collection the following year.

The St Francis tapestries measure up to 3.4 metres across, more than 20 times larger than the 70 centimetre pastel drawings they are based on.

Teams of weavers worked in shifts across 24 hours a day to complete the artworks, with each weaving comprised of between four million and 8.5 million individual stitches, explained the gallery's senior curator of Australian art Elspeth Pitt.

"They're really remarkable feats ... they've been able to translate that colour and texture of the original pastel drawings into these enormous works," she said.

The artist initially tried to exhibit the tapestries in 1975, but the exhibition fell through when funding for the show was not confirmed in time, said Pitt.

More than 50 years later, the 20 tapestries go on display at the National Gallery of Australia from Saturday.

The story of St Francis provided artistic inspiration for Boyd over about a decade of his long career, after he visited Italy in 1964 including the towns of Assisi and Gubbio.

St Francis was born in the early 12th century and renounced worldly goods to embrace a life of poverty, founding the Franciscan order and becoming revered as the patron saint of animals.

Each tapestry is a retelling of a scene from his life, such as the artworks St Francis cleansing the leper, and St Francis kissing the Wolf of Gubbio.

The tapestries are mounted floating out from the gallery walls, in order to highlight their sculptural qualities.

One weaving, St Francis being beaten by his father, has been installed in the middle of a room so its verso can be examined.

"Actually it's equally as beautiful as the front because you can see all of the individual stitches, they've all been knotted and trimmed, it's very beautiful," said Pitt.

The gallery purchased the tapestries at the same time Arthur Boyd donated thousands of his artworks to the national collection in 1975, including sculptures, prints and paintings, a gift that was then estimated to be worth about $2 million.

The tapestries are on display alongside lithographs, pastels and drawings from the Arthur Boyd Gift, that show how the artist translated his ideas across various media.

The gallery will also host events with the Australian Tapestry Workshop as part of the exhibition, which runs until October 18.