Casa dei Tessuti, Florence
At the Costume Colloquium in Florence there were fascinating presentatations by curators and researchers from all over the world, sharing their new discoveries. There were special visits to museums new and old: the Palazzo Davanzati, with its recreated medieval interiors and its study room with examples of fine lace is an old favourite, and I was impressed by the new Museo Gucci, with state-of-the-art displays showcasing items from the firm’s archive. The Museo del Tessuto in Prato was also impressive, with its explanations of the different fibres and processes that are used to make textiles. But unsurprisingly one of the best aspects of the event was being in Florence, where there are fine textiles to be seen in shops throughout the city. Two favourites were the beautiful silks and wools at the Casa dei Tessuti, via dei’ Pecori, where the proprietor and the shop are the embodiment of refinement, and the vintage garments and accessories at Ill Cancello, via dei Fossi which included 1960s garments crocheted from straw!
I’ve set up a Textile Tour to Florence for October 2013, through St James’ Travel – information and booking forms are here:
http://www.stjamesarttours.co.uk/art_tours/tour_details.asp?tid=137
1960s fashion in straw at il Cancello
Good Morning Dr Rose.
I was looking for a while what is the diaphonous , transparant material you see in the 15/16 century and later also as veils ( for instance national galery of art washington : rogier van der weyden portrain of a lady ) and dresses 🙂
like the 3 graces in Boticelli,s Primavera .
In se4arching ( my wife Mineke who is an experienced Quilter and studied textile and costume history nor here books did give a solution )
I myself ( retired academy lecturer in history now following as hobby art history lectures) figured out it could be silk,organza ,gauze silk velvet or ??At your st.james arttours youwrite sub day 3 … embroided gauze of boticelli,s primavera….””
My Question
Are the dresses 🙂 of the 3 Graces also gauze ???
kind regards from holland.
Robert
Dear Robert
Great to hear from you. That’s a good question – and a surprisingly tricky one to answer. In the Netherlandish portraits such as van der Weyden’s (which I love – I studied them for my MA) we can assume that the white fabric is linen. This was the normal choice for washable garments such as shifts for women, shirts for men, and head veils – it could also be pressed into decorative pleats, or polished to a shine. Fine quality linen would be transparent but slightly stiff.
The Graces and Venus do not represent real people so their garments are not limited to what real people wore. The way that the fabric floats on the breeze suggests that it is softer than linen – fine cotton or even silk – both of which were luxury fabrics imported from the Eastern Mediterranean, India or China. Cotton shirts from India were imported to Europe but not until later, about 1600 (see Giorgio Riello, ‘The Spinning World’ for articles on the early cotton trade).
The term ‘gauze’ refers to a weave structure with crossed warps like a simple form of lace – it can be made in any fibre, even wool. I shouldn’t have used it in this connection as embroidery is normally on a plain-weave fabric so apologies for being misleading.
For Renaissance textiles and dress you could look at this website for a V&A exhibition in 2005 (there was also a catalogue) http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1487_renaissance/. Jacqueline Herald’s book, ‘Renaissance dress in Italy, 1400-1500’ – was published in 1981, and is possibly available in university libraries.
Have fun researching this topic!
Clare
Thank you very much for the information Claire.
1.
Indeed you are right about the perhaps fictional dress of the 3 graces.
I found in an older book :
Edgar Wind :Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance .revised Oxford 1980 pp 26/36 Seneca,s Graces :
That there was also the ancient tradition ( besides the later nude tradition ) that the 3 Graces had transparant veils .
2.About the linen in v.der Weijdens lady ( and also seen as a transparant veils in many 15 century paintings of a lady wearing a henin )
you are also right
the low countries( Flanders ,Holland etc) had a very blooming linen industry in the later middle ages and after.( the water was exellent for bleaching and abundat )
So prepared linen would fit perfect for transparancy.
3.And for the elite ,Lyon ,Lucca,Venice, Florence etc were great centers for silk textile production.
So silk gauze would be possible in veils in the many Italian Renaissance portraits .
4 I remember a discussion about fictional textiles in paintings it was about the famous dresses Bronzino,s ladys are wearing especially in his portrait of Eleanor of Toledo.
As i hope i remember well, the conclusion was that the dress was fictional ?
I will cary on my little resarch .
Was i still lecturing i think it would be a good topic for a student research paper:)
By the way compliments of my wife she enjoys your latest article ( as a quilter she batiks ikats etc etc etc )
Have a nice weekend
kind regards
Robert
Dear Robert
Thank you for the reference to Seneca – the patrons for Botticelli’s paintings would have been very aware of the precedents in Roman literature.
The Netherlands were certainly a major centre for linen production – one precondition for the lace industries established after 1600 was very fine linen thread.
The status of clothing in portraits is an interesting issue – in some 1750s portraits the women are in pale satin when we know that the prestige textiles were coloured brocades, so there has been some artistic licence. As so few Renaissance garments survive it’s hard to be sure, but what we can say is that the painted items are ones that the sitter would have been happy to wear – even if they didn’t actually exist outside the picture.
Yes, ‘wax’ prints and Holland share a long history – I saw Vlisco prints on sale in South Africa a few years ago.
Clare