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Historical Embroidery News...

The embroidered Heaven

3/9/2018

12 Comments

 
Last week I was fortunate enough to visit the exhibition 'The embroidered Heaven' at the Church Heritage Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. I also met with Lithuanian embroideress Agne Zemkajute. Discussing pieces in the exhibition with a kindred soul is pure bliss! And Agne proved to be a very knowledgeable guide and fellow cake eater :). As we both have a love of church textiles and love to recreate them, this was certainly not the last time we have met. For those of you not living within two hours flying time from Vilnius, I will try to pack this blog post as full as I can with impressions of the exhibition. And at the end of this lengthy post, I will pass on details of the lovely catalogue produced by the museum.
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
The exhibits were displayed chronologically from the Late Medieval period until the 20th century. Due to the fact that the Lithuanians were the last peoples in Europe to convert to Christianity in AD 1387, there aren't any really old vestments. And Lithuania's turbulent recent history with 100 years of Tsarist rule, two World Wars and the Soviet Occupation, didn't help in the preservation of what once has been there either. Nevertheless, there were two chasubles and a cope hood on display which dated to the Late Medieval period.
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
One of the Late Medieval chasubles was 'restored' using paint. Its iconography of saints sitting under an architectural arch is well-known from many other embroidered vestments and paintings dating to the same period.
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
There were many more chasubles and related vestments on display dating to the 17th century. Contrary to earlier vestments who told a biblical story, vestments from the Baroque period feature large floral motives and an excessive use of gold threads. The height of the padding on some of these pieces is mind-boggling! These vestments were meant to dazzle you and to clearly show you who held power.
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Although I am not a fan of the Baroque period, I do admire the skill needed to produce these magnificent pieces of highly-padded goldwork embroidery. Today, this style of embroidery is still in use in the embroidery ateliers of Spain. One of the people teaching this type of embroidery and blogging about it, is Cristina Badillo.
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Playful 18th century Rococo with its elegant floral motives is much more my cup of tea. Especially the cope displayed above. Does this not remind you of Jacobean crewel work? However, this is made with silk and silver passing thread. I have never come across a piece like this and I would love to hear from my readers if they know of a comparable piece. Agne and I discussed the piece at length as we can't quite discern how the flowers have been stitched.
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
In fact, we have so many questions about this piece that we will have no choice (how horrible!) than to try and recreate some of it. Just determining if it is best to stitch the silk before the metal threads or the other way around was just not possible from looking at the piece. We even took pictures if the blown-up detail pictures on display to get a grip on the stitching process...
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
This chasuble from c. 1909 reminds me of the chasubles made by Leo Peters, a Dutch artist, around that time. It has an Art Nouveau feel to it. And the padding underneath the figure of Jesus and the cross is just amazingly thick.
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
Church Heritage Museum Vilnius
And I really liked this early 20th century piece as well. I don't remember seeing vestments using panels of needlepoint before. There is even some drawn-thread work in this one.

Apart from the many embroidered vestments on display in the exhibition, the museum also has a few vestments on permanent display. And, best of all, they have a large set of drawers on the organ gallery. Each drawer contains a vestment. They allow you to browse through them and have a good look at them without the hindrance of glass!

Please note: the exhibition 'The embroidered Heaven' will end on the 15th of September 2018. However, the Church Heritage Museum sells a wonderful catalogue, hard-bound, and with full-page detailed pictures of all the vestments held by the museum. Although the regular text is in Lithuanian, there is an excellent summary in English in the back. The catalogue has 222 pages and costs only €15. You can contact the museum here.
12 Comments
Avis link
3/9/2018 18:49:42

Wish I were a fan of vestaments but am enchanted with the designs on these.! Just the thought of the time and the amount of skilled workers to make these is astounding to say the least. Thank you for sharing!

Reply
Jessica Grimm link
3/9/2018 19:35:11

You are welcome Avis! I always marvel about the skill, time and monetary value these things represent.

Reply
Cheryl Kealy
3/9/2018 22:43:10

I was so fortunate to find this exhibition on our overseas visit in May -and agree that it is a stunning display. I particularly liked the chronological arrangement of the pieces. Like you, Jessica, the pretty Rococco mix of silk threads and gold threads and plate were my favourites, too. The catalogue’s close up pictures of some of the embroidery is a treat for embroiderers. I look forward to your experiments in recreating some of the techniques.

Reply
Jessica Grimm link
4/9/2018 08:37:02

Oh, you too! I really loved my visit to Lithuania. Ten years ago, I visited Lithuania for a conference on animal bone pathology. It is always interesting to revisit a country after so many years and see how things have changed. And when there is a large embroidery exhibition; count me in!

Reply
Rachel link
4/9/2018 17:31:33

Well, I'm not going to get to Vilnius in time, but having you go there is nearly as good! What stunning pieces they have!

Reply
Jessica Grimm link
4/9/2018 18:01:40

Glad I could be of service Rachel!

Reply
Agne
4/9/2018 18:57:05

It is worth visiting the museum whenever you can. Of course, this exhibition ends in two weeks, but set of drawers is always full of the vestments (museum people change them maybe twice a year) and there are some more in the other exhibitions. To see them all, one needs to visit this museum at least twice or three times a year.

Reply
Agne
4/9/2018 18:51:03

I am very glad that you were able to come to Vilnius! Today, writing my presentation instead of stitching ( :D ), I thought, that we could meet somewhere in Europe to see some embroidery and in the evenings we could make experiments trying to understand how the flowers of the cope have been stitched. Only that it would take quite a lot of time to understand that.

Reply
Jessica Grimm link
5/9/2018 10:51:33

Oh, yes! And in between we would roam the woods and meadows to pick herbs for our tea :). I am going to try to make apple cheese at the end of the week!

Reply
Catherine link
26/9/2018 13:47:39

Thanks so much for sharing this with us. What wonderful pieces to admire and research. I look forward to seeing your re-creations!

Reply
Ksana
7/7/2021 18:45:27

Wow, you have been in Vilnius, it’s my home :))) So pleasant to know what you liked this museum and exhibition! By the way, there is always possible to find something interesting in “close view”.

And thanks for tips about books translation ;-)

Ksana

Reply
Dr. Jessica Grimm link
7/7/2021 21:10:00

You are welcome, Ksana! Vilnius is a beautiful town. Many years ago, I visited Lithuania as part of my academic work as an archaeozoologist. We stayed in Kaunas, but also visited Klaipeda, Juodkrante and the beautiful open air museum at Rumsiskes.

Reply



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