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Liveblogging Kalamazoo (Friday 3:30-5 pm)
Session 130: Dress and Textiles II: Inside and outside the Church
Mary’s Pregnancy as Birth Amulet: Evidence from Early Byzantine Textiles (Andrea K. Olsen, Johns Hopkins Univ.)
Specifically this is on textiles depicting Mary’s pregnancy. Paper opens with a quote from Proclus of Constantinople metaphorically comparing Mary to the loom on which God wove Jesus (heavily paraphrased). Examples presented of a ring and a medallion with images of Chirst and/or Mary blessing a married couple. 4th c. commentary on people wearing clothing depicting scenes from the Gospels believing this to be “pleasing to God”. Examples of Egyptian tapestry-woven decorated tunics with NT scenes. Similarly the Byzantine silk-embroidered probably tunic decorations with Annunciation and birth of Jesus scenes. Main focus of paper is a group of draw-loom textiles with roundels showing the Visitation. The overall argument is that: A) these are secular (or at least privately-owned) textiles; B) that the repetition of Visitation motifs on them indicates an intent to “intensify” a magical effect; C) and that it makes sense to see these as pregnancy charms. (me: I think there’s a lot of circular reasoning involved here. That is, the overall concept makes sense, but I’m hesitant to move from “makes sense” to “has been demonstrated”.)
Anglo-Saxon Textile Workshops, Religious and Secular: The Textual Evidence (Maren Clegg Hyer, Valdosta State Univ.)
Spinning equipment tends to be distributed through living spaces, but weaving equipment often centered in special “weaving huts”, sometimes found in clusters. Mentions of slaves specializing in textile production. OEng glosses on Latin terms for textile workshops (e.g., “weaving-house”) although these could be translations of foreign concepts. References, e.g., in Carolingian France to English textile exports (suggesting a higher level of production than individual households). References to lay communities supplying textiles for monastic communities in an organized fashion. Evidence even stronger for embroidery workshops. The simple scope of the work (and some known time-frames for production, as for the Bayeaux embroidery) require multi-person production, possibly even multiple separate workshops (given the separate panels involved). Extensive evidence for ecclesiastical embroidery workshops, less continuous evidence for workshops producing hangings for secular buildings. Admonition of nuns not to waste their time in decorating their clothing with vain needlework.
The Early Fifteenth-Century O’Dea Miter and Crosier, and Other Treasures of Irish Artistry from Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Elizabeth Wincott Heckett, Univ. College Cork)
Miter has jeweled metal bands (silver gilt plates hinged together) attached to a leather backing, forming the main decorative bands (i.e., those often manifested as woven trim) with a “base fabric” (i.e., showing in the triangular panels between the bands) with foliage designs worked in river pearls. (It isn’t clear exactly how they’re attached – the “base fabric” is a thin gold foil over some base, but she wasn’t able to examine it closely enough to work out mechanisms.) But the current design in which the pearls are worked is not the original. The hanging bands were also re-done relatively recently, in the 18th c based on some manuscript pages used as internal stiffening. There’s an 18th c. drawing showing the original – or at least an earlier – arrangement of the pearl motifs. The earlier pattern is a relatively simple stem with paired leaves while the current one is an almost art-nouveau-ish swirl of stems and leaves and has at least a couple clearly trefoil (shamrock?) designs. Comparative examples of 14-16th c. pearled miters are presented from across Western Europe.
Other 15th c. treasures at the cathedral include the only misericords surviving in Ireland. Two are shown depicting prosperous burghers of Limerick, wearing houpelande and chaperon. Also early 17th c. marble tomb effigy, 12th c. floral-decorated coffin lid.
General Discussion
The topic was thrown out for practical discussion: what are the practical issues with multiple people working on a single embroidered piece? (I guess it turned out to be a question for contemplation -- no open discussion ensued.)
Mary’s Pregnancy as Birth Amulet: Evidence from Early Byzantine Textiles (Andrea K. Olsen, Johns Hopkins Univ.)
Specifically this is on textiles depicting Mary’s pregnancy. Paper opens with a quote from Proclus of Constantinople metaphorically comparing Mary to the loom on which God wove Jesus (heavily paraphrased). Examples presented of a ring and a medallion with images of Chirst and/or Mary blessing a married couple. 4th c. commentary on people wearing clothing depicting scenes from the Gospels believing this to be “pleasing to God”. Examples of Egyptian tapestry-woven decorated tunics with NT scenes. Similarly the Byzantine silk-embroidered probably tunic decorations with Annunciation and birth of Jesus scenes. Main focus of paper is a group of draw-loom textiles with roundels showing the Visitation. The overall argument is that: A) these are secular (or at least privately-owned) textiles; B) that the repetition of Visitation motifs on them indicates an intent to “intensify” a magical effect; C) and that it makes sense to see these as pregnancy charms. (me: I think there’s a lot of circular reasoning involved here. That is, the overall concept makes sense, but I’m hesitant to move from “makes sense” to “has been demonstrated”.)
Anglo-Saxon Textile Workshops, Religious and Secular: The Textual Evidence (Maren Clegg Hyer, Valdosta State Univ.)
Spinning equipment tends to be distributed through living spaces, but weaving equipment often centered in special “weaving huts”, sometimes found in clusters. Mentions of slaves specializing in textile production. OEng glosses on Latin terms for textile workshops (e.g., “weaving-house”) although these could be translations of foreign concepts. References, e.g., in Carolingian France to English textile exports (suggesting a higher level of production than individual households). References to lay communities supplying textiles for monastic communities in an organized fashion. Evidence even stronger for embroidery workshops. The simple scope of the work (and some known time-frames for production, as for the Bayeaux embroidery) require multi-person production, possibly even multiple separate workshops (given the separate panels involved). Extensive evidence for ecclesiastical embroidery workshops, less continuous evidence for workshops producing hangings for secular buildings. Admonition of nuns not to waste their time in decorating their clothing with vain needlework.
The Early Fifteenth-Century O’Dea Miter and Crosier, and Other Treasures of Irish Artistry from Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Elizabeth Wincott Heckett, Univ. College Cork)
Miter has jeweled metal bands (silver gilt plates hinged together) attached to a leather backing, forming the main decorative bands (i.e., those often manifested as woven trim) with a “base fabric” (i.e., showing in the triangular panels between the bands) with foliage designs worked in river pearls. (It isn’t clear exactly how they’re attached – the “base fabric” is a thin gold foil over some base, but she wasn’t able to examine it closely enough to work out mechanisms.) But the current design in which the pearls are worked is not the original. The hanging bands were also re-done relatively recently, in the 18th c based on some manuscript pages used as internal stiffening. There’s an 18th c. drawing showing the original – or at least an earlier – arrangement of the pearl motifs. The earlier pattern is a relatively simple stem with paired leaves while the current one is an almost art-nouveau-ish swirl of stems and leaves and has at least a couple clearly trefoil (shamrock?) designs. Comparative examples of 14-16th c. pearled miters are presented from across Western Europe.
Other 15th c. treasures at the cathedral include the only misericords surviving in Ireland. Two are shown depicting prosperous burghers of Limerick, wearing houpelande and chaperon. Also early 17th c. marble tomb effigy, 12th c. floral-decorated coffin lid.
General Discussion
The topic was thrown out for practical discussion: what are the practical issues with multiple people working on a single embroidered piece? (I guess it turned out to be a question for contemplation -- no open discussion ensued.)
no subject
How likely would the birth of Christ and Annunciation images be as a common motif to be celebrated? If it would widespread, then that makes a greater likelihood of it just being a devout ornamentation as opposed to a purposed charm.
Looking at the wider European field of how people brought specific illnesses to specific saints' shrines and relics in hopes of cures, it's not unreasonable to consider that images of Christ's birth might be utilized similarly to ease pregnancy and childbirth.
I really would think you'd have to go to literary sources, specifically medical treatises, and see what religious-based charms were in use in Byzantium and how they were being used, and then look at these birth-imagery textiles against that background.
no subject
Symbolism is abundant here, considering that it was customary in some cultures to loosen ties, open doors and windows, and un-knot everything knotted in order to ease a birth.
no subject