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Bavarian National Museum: Late Medieval Chasubles

26/1/2015

The National Museum has a handful of Late Medieval/Renaissance chasubles on display. By far and large, these are my favourite embroidered objects in any museum. You are in for a treat.

The embroidery on the first chasuble was executed in Cologne in the third quarter of the 15th century (1450-1475 AD). The intricate diaper patterns were made using 'Häutchengold' or skin gold also called Cypriot gold thread. It is comparable to Japanese gold, but was made by gluing gold leaf onto animal gut subsequently wrapped around a core of coloured silk. Here you can find an interesting article on medieval gold thread production by David Jacoby (2014). And here you can find an older article in German by Brigitte Dreyspring (2007). In the early 16th century, the embroidery was rearranged on the green velvet it is attached to today.

Another chasuble with re-used late medieval (c. 1500 AD, Rhineland) embroidery. Click on the pictures to see a close up of the figures executed in fine silk embroidery and surrounded by diaper motives in skin gold.

However, the most elaborately stitched chasuble is the one above. Do click on the pictures as the detail is stunning. The gold and silk embroidery was executed in Italy around 1500 AD. To achieve such a rich texture, the embroiderers used string padding and applique slips on both the silk figures and the oriental architecture. The style reminded me a bit of chasuble remains in the Catherijne Convent Museum, Utrecht (NL), showing the vita of St. Martin and St. Willibrord. However, those were made around the same time, but in the Netherlands.

I have been toying for a while with the idea of trying to replicate some of the highly textured architectural background of these pieces. If only I could find the time :). However, when I do, I will share the process with you. I have a few more goodies to show you from the National Museum, so stay tuned!

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Bavarian National Museum: late 18th century embroidery

19/1/2015

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Until late 2016, the National Museum has a small exhibition on embroidered clothes from 1780-1800 on show. Together with the other textile collections, it is well worth a visit. Living too far a way to pop over and have a look? No worries. Let me show you some exquisite silk embroidery.

Centrepiece of the exhibition is a Robe paree, a French female court dress from 1780-1790. It was altered three times to follow changes in fashion. The dress ended up in the museum as 20 separate parts and was recently pieced together again. Its cream satin is lavishly embroidered with silk embroidery using satin stitch, stem stitch, knots, needle lace, goldwork, paper padding and applique. In all, there are 20 different dainty little flower patterns consisting of roses, pansies and bellflowers scattered on the dress. Larger patterns consisting of garlands and bouquets of roses, carnations and forget-me-nots. They are stitched using 14 different colours of silk.

Now that we've seen the dress of a lady at the French court, what did the accompanying boys look like? Very colourful! Their mostly unicolour satin frock, trousers and waistcoat were richly embellished with colourful silk embroideries. These embroideries were placed along the seams, the cuffs and collar. Patterns mainly consisted of floral motives, little birds or Chinese scenes in satin stitch, stem stitch and knots. Again goldwork techniques, padding and applique are used as well. Tambour embroidery was used on garments made in Italy. Matching passementerie buttons completed the stylish outfits.

Who made these lovely embroideries? The French court employed its own embroiderers and maintained its own embroidery workshops. Apart from that, Lyon was an important centre of silk and goldwork embroidery. In the late 18th century, apparently 6000 female embroiderers were occupied. The garments were stitched on large embroidery frames and tailored into clothes afterwards. The many uncut finished embroideries show that clients could buy these and have them custom made into a finished garment. Alternatively, they could flip through a catalogue with sample pieces. Either drawings or actual pieces of embroidery.

The Bavarian National Museum sells a lovely little booklet on the exhibition. With only 67 pages it gives a good discription of pieces on show. And more importantly, it is jam packed with detailed close up photographs of the embroidery. Good enough to see individual stitches. There are even a few photographs of the backs of the embroideries! You can order your copy of Mode aus dem Rahmen here.

My absolute favourite would have been the uncut finished ambroidery with the large flowers and tulips on the cream coloured satin. It is absolutely spectacular! However, my husband did not seem keen on wearing it... What's your favourite? And do you own and wear embroidered garments? Please leave your comment below.

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Bavarian National Museum: Lauinger Fürstengruft

12/1/2015

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We had a delightful guided tour of the Renaissance textiles found in the Lauinger Fürstengruft on Saturday. The textiles are held at the Bavarian National Museum and the tour was organised by ArtTextil. Although the textiles were of course held in a pretty dark and cool room, I was able to take a few pictures (with flash disabled!). Let me show you what we saw and learned.

Centrepiece forms the costume of Dorothea Sabina von Pfalz-Neuburg (1576-1598). She was laid to rest in the Launinger Fürstengruft (tomb of the Wittelsbach family in Lauingen) which was opened in 1877 and her costume given to the Museum. Dorothea Sabina went with the Spanish court fashion of her time. She wore a sumptuous taffeta skirt covered by an olive green silk velvet dress. The bodice and dress are richly covered in silver and gold lace.

The sleeves of her dress are slashed to show the yellow silk lining. This lining is also visible on the inside of her very long over sleeves. To optimize their dazzling effect in candle light, the silk is punched with a geometric pattern.

Dorothea Sabina's costume was not particularly made for comfort. It was solely worn to convey authority and to elevate her from the lower class. She could not dress herself into this costume. She needed assistance; something the lower class could not afford. The silhouette of her torso does not show her breasts. She didn't need them as she could also afford a wet nurse to feed her baby. The dark colours of her costume were perfect to show off the rich silver and gold lace as well as her jewels. The stiff crinoline made it impossible to not walk with grace. And the stiffness of the whole costume assisted in standing straight during an audience.

As Dorothea's costume was made long before the invention of elastic bands. This meant that her skirt consumed a huge amount of fabric and was bound together at the waist with straps. Easy for people with fluctuating weight :). And yes, the invention of under pants for women was a long way off too...

Apart from Dorothea's costume, there is another female dress, two men's costumes and a children's costume on display at the museum. Unfortunately, the light was not sufficient to photograph them. But there were other embroidered treasures in the room well worth a look.

A purple velvet mantle decorated richly with goldwork once belonged to William V Duke of Bavaria (1548-1626). The metal thread embroidery consists of couching and guimped couching of silver and gold threads (couching thread, smooth purl, check purl and broad plate). They used hemp threads for the padding. The gold embroidery covers all seams.

And last but not least, a pair of beautifully embroidered gloves, pin case and bible cover. With regard to the style and the fact that a similar pair of gloves is held at the Dutch Costume Museum in The Hague, the work was probably executed in the Netherlands and dates around 1630. These sumptuous accessories were probably a royal gift and were used by a woman of high status. Due to the E Monogram on the gloves, they might have belonged to Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (1596-1662) who spent 40 years of her live in Dutch exile.

The flowers on the gloves are stitched in exquisite silk shading surrounded by goldwork embroidery, pearls and gold lace with spangles. The flaming heart shows some or nue with red silk. Other goldwork techniques used in the piece consist of couching and couching over string padding. Apart from couching thread, spangles and purls can be identified.

I'll leave you with a detailed picture of one of the gloves. As these were not the only embroidered textiles on display at the Bavarian National Museum, I will write two more blog posts in the future. One will be dealing with embroidered costumes from the Baroque period and one will consider the ecclesiastical embroideries. Please leave a comment below if you liked this historical post!

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Professional Embroidery Course

5/1/2015

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First of all: Happy New Year! Me and my husband spent the last day of the year reading, stitching, eating nice food and watching a documentary on Charlemagne (what a nasty guy that was...). And now it is back to business as usual. My students were here on Saturday for another day of stitching fun as part of the professional embroidery course I offer. Lets have a look at their progress!

In fact, there are so many possibilities that it is often hard to make decisions! This first piece is also a practice piece for future course modules. Although hard to imagine for them now, silk shading is so much easier in wool than it is with those finicky silken threads...

Would you like to learn new embroidery techniques in a friendly group? Then why not join us! Feel free to contact me for more information. You can also browse this website for more stunning embroidery pieces of former students. Living further away? I am looking into the possibility of offering an embroidery retreat (after all, I am living in the middle of a popular holiday destination!). Please let me know if you are interested in this possibility.

I am looking forward to your comments on my students' progress. More to come!

Annette and Christiane work on their crewel embroidery pieces. Working with fine woollen yarn on linen twill is called crewel embroidery. It originates in the Anglo-American world and it typically combines exotic floral motives with native wild life. It is a perfect technique to try out colour combinations and stitches.

Speaking of the devil. Luise has very bravely started her silk shading module! A picture from an anemone seed packet will in the next few weeks be transformed into a stunning silk shading piece. Alone the flower petals consist of 13 different colours of Chinese flat silk. The pink shades look stunning on the dark blue dupion silk background, don't you think?

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Weekly Embroidery News...

Bavarian National Museum: Late Medieval Chasubles

Bavarian National Museum: late 18th century embroidery

Bavarian National Museum: Lauinger Fürstengruft

Professional Embroidery Course

Jessica M. Grimm

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