In the 80s, we had an art historian in the Netherlands who started to systematically trawl through historical records to find late medieval and early modern embroiderers. She published a couple of great articles on the topic. However, the large overview publication she promised in her 1987 article never saw the light of day. Instead, Prof. Dr. Saskia de Bodt switched to studying illustration. And although I am sure she has a lovely and fulfilling career, I am sad she switched topics! And I am wondering in what state this promised 'large overview publication' is? I did contact her, but never received an answer. In the meantime, I am grateful for the work she did! And I love sharing these somewhat obscure Dutch publications with you.

In the Low Countries, the embroiderers were never organised in their own guild in the medieval period. Could this be because there were rarely enough embroiderers in a particular city in the medieval period to make this worthwhile? Unfortunately, we have very limited sources for the late medieval period. But this seems to be a plausible explanation. So, how did they organise themselves? One thing most cities seem to have in common is that the embroiderers have been organised in one way or another since the late 15th century. Precisely the time when embroidery really takes off in the Low Countries. However, things usually become official much later.

But there are exceptions. Especially in the South (nowadays Belgium). For instance, embroiderers are mentioned as part of the guild of the tailors and doublet makers in AD 1403 in Ghent. Bruges follows in AD 1441. Again, embroiderers are part of a guild together with the quilters and doublet makers. In Antwerp, the embroiderers were among the initiators of the Saint Luke Guild in AD 1382. The Saint Luke Guild is a common guild for many different kinds of artists. The Antwerp Guild united painters, gold and silver smiths, glaziers and wood carvers.

The embroiderers in Amsterdam first belong to the Our Lady Guild of Masons. This guild was formed in the second half of the 15th century. Don't be fooled by the name. Painters, glaziers and other artisans were also part of this masons' guild. In the course of the 16th century, the embroiderers and the other artisans separated to form the Saint Luke guild. The embroiderers of Haarlem belong to the Saint Luke guild from its formation sometime during the late 15th century. Things become official in AD 1514. I found it shocking to read that after the reorganisation of the guild in AD 1631, the embroiderers belonged to the lowest rank of artisans represented by the guild. The painters were the top dogs, of course.

Other cities where the embroiderers belonged to the Saint Luke guild are: Dordrecht, Kampen, Gouda, Rotterdam, Delft, Middelburg, Vlissingen, Veere, Nijmegen, Zwolle, Den Bosch, Bergen op Zoom and Venlo. Why were the embroiderers part of a guild that was or at least became increasingly dominated by the painters? One reason might be that this is how they acquire their patterns. Another is that in sources written in Latin, their profession is named acupictores or painter with a needle. It thus seems that medieval people in the Low Countries (especially in the North) did see embroiderers as painters and not so much as textile workers.

But again, we have some exceptions. In Groningen, the embroiderers were part of the peddlers' guild, together with the passementerie workers. In Utrecht and Rhenen, the embroiderers were part of the tailors' guild. And in Arnhem, they essentially called the Saint Luke Guild the Saint Josef Guild.

And you would probably think that the embroiderers would be well off within the tailors' guild. After all, the embroiderer makes the orphreys that the tailor then attaches to the vestment he has cut and put together. Good relations between embroiderers and tailors are thus important. And they probably were amicable as long as the job was high-end and complicated. But things became muddled when the job required 'simple' embroidery or 'simple' sewing. For instance, when vestments were mended. This overlap was the centre of much dismay and legal action between the two professions.

I hope you've enjoyed learning a bit more about the organisation of medieval embroiderers in the Low Countries. My Journeyman and Master Patrons will have access to an English translation of the chapter by Saskia the Bodt on which this blog is based. It contains a wealth of information and a bibliography for further research.

Next week, I will have a brand new embroidery tutorial for you. And from the 1st of December onwards, all my Patrons will have access to a digital advent calendar with daily delicious embroidered eye candy. I am a huge fan of advent calendars! No matter what is in them. So far, I have tea, coffee, chocolate, illustrations, meditation texts and digital. An impressive 15 different ones! You see, my friends know about my advent calendar addiction too. And they are very glad to help me out :).

Literature
Bodt, S. de, 1987. De professionele borduurwerkers, in: Bodt, S. de, Caron, M.L. (Eds.), Schilderen met gouddraad en zijde. Rijksmuseum Het Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, pp. 8–19.

Last week, we looked at five different embroidered versions of the same Adoration of the Magi design. By changing materials and embroidery techniques, these late 15th and early 16th century embroideries look quite different from each other. The scene was part of four chasubles and a loose chasuble cross. But what about the other scenes complementing the main Adoration of the Magi scene? Where they also identical on all five pieces? Let's find out what they can tell us about the design process of a late medieval embroidered vestment.

Above is a list of the events in the life of Jesus that are depicted on the four pieces. It becomes clear that some scenes were more popular than others. Bear in mind that none of these pieces are in their original configuration. They were all cut down to the newer, shorter model when fashion changed. This probably means that all of them miss at least two scenes. A partial scene on the chasuble from Frankfurt is interpreted in the literature as Joachim and Anna (parents of Mary) meeting at the Golden Gate. However, I think it is more likely that this is the Visitation.

Just like some modern people, ancient people wanted to know everything there was to learn about their heroes. As the official bible is rather tight-lipped about many ordinary aspects of the lives of the Holy Family, apocryphal texts filled that void. For instance, Mary needed more background. The story of her parents and her miraculous conception can be found in the Gospel of James. Although this gospel did not make it into the official bible, its stories were widely known in the medieval period. The scene of her father Joachim being expelled from the temple for being childless (when Mary was finally born, he was an old man) is included on the chasuble from Frankfurt.

As we compare the scenes we have multiples for, we both note 'twins' and a striking diversity. There are two different design sources for the Annunciation.

There's four different design sources for the Visitation.

As the Nativity scene is another central embroidery on the two chasubles now kept in the Catharijneconvent, one would expect that at least these two share the same embroidery design. However, they don't. Instead, one of the chasubles from the Catharijneconvent is a twin again with the chasuble from Namur. There are three different embroidery design drawings at the base of the Nativity scene.

By now, it will probably not surprise you that the Presentation at the Temple scene has a twin and a completely different version.

The two scenes of Christ amongst the Doctors have a different design source. Although one of the chasubles from the Catharijneconvent has several scenes that are identical to the ones on the chasuble from Namur, two scenes are different (this one and the Visitation).

What does it all mean? Supposedly, all five embroideries were made in Amsterdam (the online catalogue states that the one from Namur was made in the Duchy of Brabant; I doubt it) at around the same time. We have already seen that all five Adoration of the Magi scenes have the same embroidery design but very different embroidery techniques and materials. Combining this with the above evidence, I don't think that any of these embroideries were made in the same workshop. What do you think?

Furthermore, how far did the design 'template' drawing of the Adoration of the Magi travel? Was it really only used by the embroiderers in Amsterdam? Why, then, do the other scenes use at least three different design template sources? Did the embroidery guild in Amsterdam have such an extensive library of designs? Knowing how many embroiderers worked in Amsterdam at the start of the 16th century would be helpful. Unfortunately, we don't. We do have a guild regulation from the Amsterdam St Luke Guild from AD 1579, slightly after the creation of these embroideries and well after the Reformation kicked in, where the embroiderers are named together with the painters, glazers, sculptors, carpet makers and potters. There are clearly not enough or no longer enough embroiderers in Amsterdam to form their own guild. The St Luke guild undoubtedly had some excellent draftsmen amongst its members. But still. Is it possible that the Adoration of the Magi template drawing travelled between the guilds of different cities?

We know from historical sources that design drawings were ordered from painters and other talented draftsmen, either by the embroiderers themselves or by the client. The sources sometimes stipulate that the drawing needs to be returned to the maker. In that case, it would be easy for the maker to supply another guild with the same design. Thus, the design library was probably not housed by the embroidery guild but by individual draftsmen or the guild to which they belonged. Is it thus possible that these four renditions of the Adoration of the Magi were not all made in Amsterdam? Perhaps some were made in other towns near Amsterdam, such as Leiden, Alkmaar, Haarlem or Hoorn? What do you think?

Literature
Bodt, S. de, 1980. 'Dan isser de Borduerwercker …`. Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 31 (1), 65–71.
Stolleis, K., 1992. Der Frankfurter Domschatz: Die Paramente: Liturgische Gewänder und Stickereien 14. bis 20. Jahrhundert. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main.

Last week, I wrote about the embroidered late medieval vestments on display in the St Nicolai Church in Kalkar. We looked in depth at the richly embroidered chasuble donated by Wolter van Riswick in AD 1530. This week, we’ll examine a splendidly embroidered cope and dalmatic, also kept in the church in Kalkar. These vestments were also made in the Northern Netherlands around AD 1530.

The embroidery on the cope is a splendid affair. The scenes are very detailed, and there are many different figures. Looking at their faces, you will see they are all very individual. The stitching is very fine, and many different silk colours are used. Apart from the ‘fleshy’ parts, the figures are stitched using the or nue (shaded gold) technique. As many of these coloured silken stitches have fallen out and were likely replaced with colourless conservation thread, the scenes appear very golden. However, the remnants of intact or nue stitching show that it was once of the highest quality. Typical of the late medieval goldwork embroidery from the Low Countries.

Also, note the elaborately embroidered frame around the orphrey. It consists of a padded triple-zig-zag line, and trefoils fill the formed triangles. I think these borders were workshop-specific, and I don’t think I have encountered this particular one before.

The goldwork embroidery on the dalmatic is a bit simpler. Gone are the elaborate orphrey borders. Instead, the orphreys are surrounded by a common string-padded basket weave. The or nue embroidery used on the figures is also much more blocky and not so finely shaded as seen on the cope. The figures themselves are very standardised. And I am pretty sure that there are ‘twins’ out there reflecting the mass production of this type of embroidery. However, the embroidery is still good quality, just not as spectacular as seen on the cope. This probably reflects the hierarchy of the wearer of the vestments: priest versus deacon.

It was a real treat to encounter these splendidly embroidered late medieval vestments in a small town in Germany. Although Kalkar is close to the Dutch border, these late medieval vestments were not shown or mentioned at the large overview exhibition of Dutch late medieval embroidery in Utrecht in 2015. However, they testify further to the vast output of the late medieval goldwork embroidery workshops in the Northern Netherlands.

Literature
Werd, G. de, 2016. St. Nicolaikirche Kalkar. Deutscher Kunstverlag Berlin München.

Last year, I visited the St Nicolai Church in Kalkar, Germany. Kalkar was an important and wealthy city in the late medieval period. It was never very large, but with proud inhabitants who used their monetary power to decorate the place beautifully. Although no longer important from the 17th century onwards, and even reverting to city farming (think Detroit!) until well into the 19th century, Kalkar is well worth a visit. Especially as the St Nicolai Church has one of the most important church treasures still in its original place, and among it, are four spectacularly embroidered late medieval vestments made in the Low Countries. These vestments enhance the many beautiful altarpieces with their paintings and sculptures. You can really see that they form a unity. Think of them in 2-D, and you have an embroidery pattern.

The church inventory lists more than 100 vestments in AD 1543. Many of which were donated by important Kalkar families. Today, four of these vestments are displayed in the church treasury. You will need to visit on a sunny day as natural light is the only light source for these beauties. All four vestments are made of red velvet and decorated with the typical orphreys seen in the Low Countries. On display are: two copes, a dalmatic and a chasuble. We will explore the chasuble in this blog post.

The chasuble is a testament to the rich cultural heritage of the Northern Netherlands. Its beautifully embroidered orphreys, crafted around AD 1525, are a sight to behold. This chasuble, mentioned in the church inventory of AD 1543, was a generous donation by Wolter van Riswick in AD 1530. Wolter, hailing from a wealthy family, along with his brothers, contributed significantly to this church and the one in nearby Xanten. The front of the chasuble features an embroidered column with three scenes: the women visiting the grave, Noli me tangere, and the road to Emmaus appearance.

Although the front of the chasuble is currently on display, the back shows a most elaborate scene of the Crucifixion, followed by the burial of Jesus and the Resurrection. The embroidery is exquisite, and many techniques are used. There's finely shaded or nue for the clothing of most of the figures. There's diaper couching behind the crucified Christ, as well as on the beams forming the cross. The landscape is mainly made up of Italian Stitch/Couching (laid silk couched down with a single gold thread). The frame around the orphrey has been padded with string to form the zig-zag pattern with the dots. The blue scallops are also intricately stitched by recombining and twisting gold threads that come from the regular couching further up. All in all, this was a costly piece of embroidery executed by one of the leading embroidery ateliers in the Northern Netherlands.

Literature
Werd, G. de, 2016. St. Nicolaikirche Kalkar, Deutscher Kunstverlag Berlin München.

Let's delve into the fascinating world of a unique embroidery crafted around AD 1500 in the Middle Rhine Area. This masterpiece, housed at the Dommuseum Mainz, is a testament to local artistry. Its iconography, a departure from the norm in medieval goldwork embroidery from Europe, is truly one-of-a-kind. It's reminiscent of the whimsical art photographs by Anne Geddes, but instead of babies nestled in foliage, we have the figures of the Crucifixion and an Apostle. Allow me to unveil this intriguing piece.

As you can see from the above picture, the embroidered chasuble cross has been cut on all sides. Two patches and an extra piece of grapes have been added on each side of the cross beam of the cross. Those two patches were originally the bottom of one of these foliage cups the figures stand in. It isn't the bottom part of the cup Bartholomew the Apostle stands in (the colours are wrong). This means there either was a further figure below Bartholomew or a column with the same embroidery on the front of the chasuble. I have contacted the museum to see what the front looks like.

What is represented here? We see the crucified Christ standing in a foliage cup with two angels catching his blood in chalices. Above Christ, God father is depicted standing in a smaller foliage cup. Below Christ are Saint John and Mary. The crucified Christ, God father, Saint John, Mary and the angels are all familiar figures in a standard Crucifixion scene. Apostle Bartholomew at the bottom is also regularly seen below a Crucifixion scene. What is, however, very unusual is that the Crucifixion scene is embedded in this glorious vine with the beautiful foliage cups and bundles of shaded padded grapes.

As far as I know, this particular combination of the vine and the Crucifixion cannot be found on any other piece of medieval goldwork embroidery. It is a unique way of depicting the eucharist. Normally, this is done by showing Jesus working in a wine press. A good example is this silk and metal thread embroidery on linen kept at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. You see Christ in the Winepress on the left—a very different depiction indeed.

But I did find something comparable. Here, you see an icon painted by Angelos Akotantos between AD 1425-1457. It is known as 'Christ the Vine' based on John 15:1–17. We see busts of Christ, the Evangelists and some of the Apostles sitting on the branches of a vine. Could it be that the artists responsible for the chasuble design from Mainz saw an Eastern Orthodox icon of 'Christ the Vine' and combined the idea with the Crucifixion? People, objects and ideas travelled much farther in the Middle Ages than we often think.

The actual embroidery is also a bit unusual. The background consists of miles of laid red silk couched with metal threads. The figures and the vine are stitched on linen and then applied to the red and golden background. The vine, and especially the grapes, are heavily padded. The figures are mainly stitched in that typical medieval encroaching satin stitch. And I like the angel's hair. It is probably made of overtwisted silk rather than knots. And in this case, the angel is a partly blonde redhead :).

I hope you liked this unusual piece of medieval goldwork and silk embroidery. The foliage cups are superb design elements one could use in, for instance, a modern crewelwork embroidery.

After a successful week of teaching for Creative Experiences in Les Carroz, France, I decided to drive a further 330 km to visit Le-Puy-en-Velay. The Cathedral Treasury houses the Cougard-Fruman textile collection. Judging from the catalogue, the collection comprises of c. 180 pieces. Most of it is liturgical textiles. And a few pieces are medieval goldwork embroidery. The museum is well worth a visit. And even a repeat visit as the pieces on display rotate. The town itself is beautiful too with a medieval 'haute-ville'. It is also one of the main places in France from which to start the Camino pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. But let's have a closer look at one of the embroidered chasubles in the museum. It turned out that I was already somewhat familiar with it ...

This is the said chasuble. It was made in Flanders (Brussels?) in the 15th-century according to the museum caption. On the front, we see Catherine of Alexandria above Philip the Apostle (identification uncertain). The cross on the back shows the Trinity at the top flanked by two angels. Below are Saint John and Saint Peter.

Although the embroidery does not sport high-quality silk shading or brilliant or nue, the chasuble is a high-end piece. The composition of the Trinity with the two censer swinging angels on either side is balanced and full of movement. The string-padded frame within a string-padded frame for the central depiction of the Trinity also adds extra texture.

The lining of the cloaks of the angels is made by couching a piece of blue-green heavy silk in place. The goldwork embroidery is executed with membrane threads. The membrane threads are now badly oxidised and dull. When the embroidery was originally made the threads would have looked golden and shiny. The silk embroidery is done with untwisted silk. I am a bit puzzled by the twisted textile thread used in the padded basket-weave border around the orphrey. It is reddish-brown and much duller than the silks. To me, it looks like wool. However, it might be a thick spun silk.

From the pictures in the catalogue, I had not realised that one of the orphreys I bought at an auction is related to the orphreys on this chasuble. When I stood in front of the display case in the museum, it suddenly dawned on me that I had something similar. Luck will have it that I brought the orphrey with me for my students at Les Carroz to study. The museum personnel was very nice and helpful and they allowed me to fetch the orphrey from my car and bring it into the museum for comparison. How cool is that?!

As you can see from the above picture of my orphrey, the materials, colours, style of the figure and embroidery techniques are quite similar to that seen on the chasuble in Le Puy. My orphrey is just very dirty and will need some TLC. It was glued onto velvet which was glued onto plywood. As the wood was mouldy, I had to remove the orphrey by cutting through the velvet and glue with a surgical knife. Not a delicate task. But it worked. I will write more on the orphrey and what I did to it in a future blog post.

But first, I am off to the International Festival of Gold Embroidery and Jewelery in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Got my flight tickets yesterday and will leave on Wednesday. As I will still be in Uzbekistan next Monday there will be no blog post. As always, my Patrons will be able to follow me on my travels.

Literature
Cougard-Fruman, J. & D.H. Fruman (2010). Le trésor brodé de la cathédrale du Puy-en-Velay. Centre des Monuments Nationaux.

When I started work on this week's stitch tutorial, I had the increasing feeling that things weren't quite what they seemed to be at first. That's the great thing about doing research. I usually have no idea where the medieval embroideries will lead me. Dead ends are common. But so are those 'aha' moments. In this case, it was the latter. Let's dive in!

And here is the culprit. No, not Saint Andrew. It is the columns on either side of him. They are odd. The layering of goldwork is a common thing in late-medieval goldwork embroidery. But this is simply too OTT. It does not make sense. Let's start our tutorial proper and I'll point the oddness out to you.

Start with a layer of shaded couched goldwork. For my sample (c. 0.8 x 5.0 cm), I used 46ct linen and passing thread #3 couched down with a single ply of red Chinese flat silk.

Next up, add the silver passing thread. You will be mainly stitching in between the rows of gold thread of the first layer. However, you will inevitably hit threads of the first layer. Make sure you use a fine needle. A new #12 would be perfect. You might also like to wax your silken couching thread (one ply of grey silk).

The "original" embroiderer then went on to add a layer of thicker red stitches along each side of the silver passing thread. I've used a full thread of red Chinese flat silk to do this for the inside of the right-hand side only. By now, I was pretty certain that this was not all done in the late Middle Ages ...

So much additional stitching in such a relatively small space is nuts. It does not add anything to the design. On the contrary, you lose quite a bit of the original lovely shading of the first layer. When additional details are stitched in, they usually add to the design. They bling things up or they make the design easier to read by accentuating things. That does not seem to be the case here. So, what's going on?

Here's an extreme blown-up detail of that same column. Can you see the thick white/beige couching stitches used to couch down those silver threads? The silver threads themselves are also much thicker than all the other threads used in the embroidery. The added red stitches to the outside of the silver threads are also comparable in thickness to the white/beige stuff. It all looks so much cruder than the original very high-quality stitching done in the medieval period.

As I already told you in my earlier blog posts, these vestments saw extensive restoration in the 1840s. The addition of these silver passing threads on top of the columns was likely done then. It likely serves several purposes. Maybe some columns had so many damaged loose gold threads that this was a decorative way of cleaning things up. But it also does something else. This additional stitching likely goes through many of the layers that these vestments are made of. This stabilizes the whole construction. You often see horrible bulging on non-restored late-medieval vestments. By stitching through multiple layers, you have a chance to make things very stable and secure. It can't really bulge anymore. Is that was what attempted here? What do you think? Do you also feel that not all of the embroidery on these columns is original?

My Journeyman and Master Patrons find a downloadable PDF of this tutorial on my Patreon page. After all, working layers of metal thread on top of each other is quite fun to do!

One of the highlights of my museum tour at the end of November last year, was the Dommuseum Frankfurt. It has nine medieval embroidered vestments on permanent display. Well worth a visit! At the beginning of the year, I showed you a green chasuble with embroideries from the mid-14th century and the second quarter 15th century made in Cologne. This time, I will introduce you to the Schlosser vestment set with embroideries made in both the Netherlands and Cologne. Both were made around AD 1460. The or nue, or shaded gold, used on the figures is very beautiful. Let's have a look.

The Schlosser vestment set consists of a chasuble and two dalmatics. It was bought by Johann Friedrich Heinrich, known as Fritz Schlosser (1780-1851), a councillor from Frankfurt, in 1842/43 from the dealer Fontaine in Cologne. Fritz Schlosser asked his painter friend Edward von Steinle, a vestment maker in Cologne with his two daughters and painter and conservator Johann Anton Ramboux, also in Cologne, to restore the set. Apparently, the vestments were taken apart completely. Loose parts were affixed. But what really astonishes me, is that they treated the new gold threads with acid to make them look old. The vestment maker and his two daughters worked for about a year and were paid a 100 Taler (roughly €4243 today, according to some pretty tricky maths). This was not a living wage when compared to living costs around 1850 in this part of Germany. The vestment maker and his daughters must have had additional income.

Thanks to the names and coats of arms embroidered onto the chasuble, we know where it originally came from. The names and coats of arms are of Merten Moench/Maarten Monicx (born in 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands), died 1466) councillor in Cologne and his wife Drutgin von den Groeven (died 1451). He probably donated the vestment set to a church in his hometown of 's-Hertogenbosch in 1460. Likely to the chapel of the Fraternity of Our Lady in the St. John's Cathedral. A couple of years later, Maarten also donated the orphreys for a cope. The fraternity had to provide for the fabric and the tailoring of the cope. Unfortunately, the cope has not survived.

The curious thing about the embroideries on the Schlosser set of vestments is that they come from two different places. The orphreys on the chasuble were made in Cologne. We see a typical architectural background with saints standing on a tiled floor. However, instead of a golden background, the niche behind the figures consists of horizontally laid blue silk couched down with vertically laid gold. This is a technique not used in the Netherlands.

Contrary, the embroideries on the dalmatics were made in the Netherlands. This time, the figures are completely stitched in or nue. The background of the niche in which the saints stand is filled with a basket weave diaper pattern in red. As the original silken stitches of the finely worked faces had fallen out, they were 'restored' with paint. Not sure if this was part of the 1842/43 restoration by the vestment maker of Cologne. Given that there were two accomplished painters in the group of restorers, it would not surprise me if one of them had wielded a brush.

By taking a picture under an angle, you can clearly see the different slips that make up the orphreys on the dalmatic. The or nue on the robes of Saint John is absolutely stunning. However, these orphreys are the product of mass production. An identical Saint John can be found on the other dalmatic too. And Saint John isn't the only one. We also have doppelgänger for Saint Paul, Saint Peter, Simon the Zealot, Gregory the Great, James the Great and Saint Andrew. James the Great is even found in the same spot ... And this is only on the front. The backs of the vestments are not really accessible and have not been published either.

Given the fact that Merten Moench was born in what is now the Netherlands and died in what is now Germany, it is probably not that surprising that orphreys from both places were used in this set of vestments. It is likely that the family of Merten moved freely in the area that's now the border between Germany and the Netherlands. What does strike me as odd is that the orphreys of the chasuble on the one hand and the orphreys on the dalmatics on the other hand are quite different. Apparently, this did not matter much to the people who made, gifted and used these vestments in the middle of the 15th century.

My Journeyman and Master Patrons find 37 additional pictures of the vestments on my Patreon page. Your monthly contributions made this research possible. Thank you very much!

Literature
Fircks, Juliane von (2010): Serienproduktion im Medium mittelalterlicher Stickerei - Holzschnitte als Vorlagenmaterial für eine Gruppe mittelrheinischer Kaselkreuze des 15. Jahrhunderts. In: Uta-Christiane Bergemann, Annemarie Stauffer (Eds.): Reiche Bilder. Aspekte zur Produktion und Funktion von Stickereien im Spätmittelalter. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, pp. 65–82.
Koldeweij, J., Vandenbroeck, P., Vermet, B., 2001. Hieronymus Bosch - das Gesamtwerk: [Katalog]. Belser, Stuttgart.
Stolleis, Karen (1992): Der Frankfurter Domschatz: Die Paramente. Liturgische Gewänder und Stickereien 14. bis 20. Jahrhundert. Band I. Frankfurt am Main: Waldemar Kramer.

Two weeks ago, we looked at a late 15th century embroidered chasuble kept in the Domschatz of Fritzlar. It had these lovely textured bands or borders between the individual orphreys. The border is made my couching gold threads and coloured silks over string padding. It seems to be a very 'Central European' thing to do. The technique is not difficult at all and would look great in a modern piece of goldwork embroidery or on a piece of needlepoint/canvaswork. So, let me show you how it is done. As always, my Journeyman and Master Patrons can download a practical PDF with all the instructions from my Patreon page.

Start by couching down four parallel rows of padding thread or string on your embroidery linen. I am working on a 46ct evenweave. For my couching thread, I used DeVere yarns #6 silk in a gold colour.

By looking closely at the original, I could see that the gold threads were applied first followed by the silk. The golden triangles consists of 7 blocks of 4 rows of gold thread. The gold threads are couched down in pairs. I've used a passing thread #3 and the same DeVere yarns gold-coloured silk. Start from the middle. As the border is quite narrow, your gold threads need a lot of manipulation at the turns. Tweezers might come in handy and you might need an extra couching stitch in the turn.

As silk is very slippery, I like to go over my couching stitches twice (i.e. place two couching stitches on top of each other). Alternatively, you can wax your silk thread. Remove any exess wax crumbs before you start to stitch.

In the original, it becomes clear that the embroiderer went over the turns with their silks when they added the silken triangles. That's how I can see that the gold was stitched first. However, I don't like that as your silk snags so easily on the gold. Instead, I angled my needle under the turns. I've used Au ver a soie ovale with a matching colour DeVere yarns #6 for the couching. Start with only half a silken triangle. Measure the top of the golden triangle and match that for the silken triangles.

Add golden triangles before finishing the silken triangles. Your threads will have a tendency to roll off the end of your string padding. In the original, this was solved with a red binding. Very clever indeed.

And this is what my finished sample looks like. Wouldn't it be fun to figure out how to turn a 90 degree corner with this technique?

When we looked at the embroidered chasuble from Fritzlar with the Virgo inter Virgines iconography last week, I was sure that I would be able to find many Doppelgänger. I had seen this iconography many times before and I was quite sure that these pieces were all very similar. Nope. They are not. As soon as you start to look at these pieces in more detail you will find that they are all different. Either in the placement of the individual figures and/or in the embroidery techniques used. Now what does this mean? On the one hand, these pieces are readily recognisable as a group and on the other hand, they are all different. This, I think, must mean that there was a late medieval model book that was in use by embroiderers in Central Europe. As no medieval model books used by embroiderers seem to have survived, reconstructing one using actual medieval goldwork embroidery is pretty exciting.

Here you see two typical embroidered chasuble crosses showing the Virgo inter Virgines from the late 15th century. The left chasuble was made in Austria in the second half of the 15th century and is kept at the Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts. The piece on the right is part of the private collection of the Bernheimer family. It was made in Southern Germany shortly before AD 1500. In both embroideries, Mary is depicted as the Madonna with child standing on the crescent moon with rays of light behind her. This 'Mondsichelmadonna' was very popular in the 15th century and refers to the Woman of the Apocalypse.

On both embroidered chasubles the figures accompanying the Madonna in the large top orphrey are Catherine of Alexandria (with sword) on the left and Saint Barbara (with chalice) on the right. Everything else differs. No angel is crowning Mary on the Bernheimer chasuble. The figures in the two smaller orphreys below the Madonna differ for both embroideries too. On the left, we see Saint Apollonia (?) followed by Saint Ursula. On the right, we see Mary Magdalene followed by Catherine of Siena (?).

When we look at the embroidery techniques used, there are differences but also many similarities. For starters, the colours used are very similar. There's mainly blue for Mary and a combination of green and orange for the other virgins. Both embroideries use the same diaper pattern for the golden background: open basket weave. Couched down with a yellow thread for the piece from Austria and couched down with a red thread for the piece from Southern Germany. The treatment of the halos is also identical. There's a layer of silken flat stitches as the base with a couched gold thread on top. The halo is edged with one of these composite threads: a thick textile yarn with a gold thread wound around it. This is sometimes called gold gimp in the German literature.

These similarities in both iconography and embroidery techniques show that these pieces are made in the same geographical area. After all, Southern Germany shares a border with Austria. The differences show that the pieces were not made in the same town or guild. Likely, the customer could choose which additional figures to add to the central scene of the Madonna. These additional figures likely had some special meaning for the customer. As the iconography of the Virgo inter Virgines is strongly associated with convents, name days and patron saints of the nuns probably played a role here.

And here you see the other main type of the Virgo inter Virgines iconography. The central top orphrey with the Madonna is very similar to that of the two previous examples (Catherine, Ursula, Barbara and Madonna). However, the two smaller orphreys below now show two saints each. We see Dorothea of Caesarea (basket) with Margaret the Virgin (dragon) and Saint Apollonia (thongs with tooth) with Mary Magdalene (ointment box). These two chasuble crosses are identical in their iconography. The treatment of Saint Ursula on a cloud above the Madonna is only seen on these two embroideries as far as I am aware.

But there is more. There are other identical embroidery techniques too. See the bands that separate the different orphreys? They are made by couching silk and gold threads over horizontal string padding. And they are identical on both embroidered chasuble crosses. To me, this suggests that both embroideries were made in the same town. Will we ever find out which one?

And when we look at the Saint Catherine's of all four embroidered chasuble crosses, they look pretty similar. How did this happen? In the 15th century, ecclesiastical embroidery had already evolved into mass production. Certain scenes were very popular and every self-respecting church wanted them. The 15th century also saw the invention of block book printing (major centres in the South of Germany) and the printing press (invented in Mainz, Central Germany). Likely, cheap block books with simple line drawings of the different Virgins existed in this geographical area too. These would have been used in the embroidery workshops as design inspiration. Designs would have been drawn free-hand or by using a grid to enlarge them more easily. Especially the faces differ between the various versions of a particular figure. This seems to be quite understandable as this is the hardest thing to get right in both drawing and subsequent embroidering.

By consequently digitizing these embroidered figures into line drawings and combining these with the used embroidery techniques, I have a feeling that it should be possible to group them. This hopefully leads to more precise provenances for these embroidered chasuble crosses. It should also help with the identification of incomplete figures on cut orphreys. I am planning to spend my summer holiday learning how to digitize with the help of Inkccape. In the meantime, I am collecting the Virgo inter Virgines embroideries on a Padlet for my Journeyman and Master Patrons to enjoy.

Next week, we will work a practical sample based on the above embroideries!