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hrjSaturday 3:00
Session 431 Dress and Textiles II: Identity and Self-Expression
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF Presider: Robin Netherton
Familial Identity in Curated Spaces: The Use of Textiles from Anglo-Saxon Wills
Katherine Weikert, Univ. of Winchester
Difficulties in visualizing AS living spaces; too often just excavation diagrams or reconstructed buildings. Adding in material culture gives a better picture, but still doesn't give understanding of interactions and transactions involving the objects/spaces. Look at elite textiles in the AS world to create environment/impression on inhabitants/guests within those domestic spaces. Wall hangings, seat covers, bed clothing including curtains are most commonly mentioned in wills. Significance of combinations of objects, possibly including related sets of objects creating a deliberately "curated" visual/experiential space.
E.g., groupings from different wills showing sets of textiles:
2 wall-hangings, bed curtain, linens, bed-clothing;
Eldest son: wall-hanging and bed-clothes
Second son: wall-hangings for hall and chamber, table cloth and other cloths
Bath Abbey: bed-clothing with wall-hangings, curtain and other cloths
Kinsman: two wall-hangings and two seat covers
Sister: wall-hanging, seat cover, "strichraegl"
Grandson: three wall-hangings, two seat covers
Kinswoman: wall-hanging, seat cover, other cloths
Maternal niece: wall-hangings and seat covers
Kinswoman's daughter:...(slide changed, there were more details)
Actual nature of these objects have only a few clues (e.g., 2 wall-hanging type objects surviving) though we can get extrapolation from things like the Oseberg tapestries or from literary descriptions of domestic furnishings. Late 11th c. poem describing furnishings with both contemporary and classical motifs depicted. Types of information: the nature of the objects (as seen above), the location within the space where these objects are placed, and the materials/motifs (when available). When we have both extensive textiles mentioned in a will and an archaeological understanding of the buildings inhabited by the owner, we can draw up theories as to where those known textiles might have been used. (Example given of Faccombe Netherton, Hampshire ca. 960, home of a Wynflaed whose will is one of the groups above.) The settlement has three significant buildings and the large number of textiles listed in the will would provide an extensive public display within that space. What "message" do these wall-hangings and furnishings convey to the viewers? Family heritage, piety, calendar motifs - generally presteige, control over environment/people. (Further speculation on how likely motifs might have related to the family identidy and connections of Wynflaed, including her daughter Aelfgifu of Shaftesbury, and her grandsons Kings Eadwig and Edgar.)
Cross-Dressing Knights in Medieval Literature
Debbie Kerkhof, Univ. Utrecht
Look at two German 13th century tales "Fraudienst" and "Der Bort". Given how similar male and female clothing is during this era, what does it mean to "cross-dress"? How is it indicated and what does it mean? Very minor differences can be key gender signifiers, and headwear was always important. 12-13th c. is big era for cross-dressing motifs.
Fraudienst - Man (Ulrich) cross-dressing for the purpose of wooing a lady by jousting as a woman. He procured "skirts", "shirts", false braids wound with pearls, and velvet cloaks. He also attempts to behave as a woman is thought to behave and this is viewed as a postive thing. (This is from a rhyming translation so I'd hesitate to take the "skirts" and "shirts" literally.) Emphasis on length of garments, length of braids, use of pearls in headdress. Veiled face so that only the eyes are visible. What was the purpose of the cross-dressing? Evidently it was an open masquerade that everyone was aware of, and was intended to bring him honor, but no mention is made in the paper of the context of why he chose to do it.
Der Bort - Wife is approached by a knight who wants to sleep with her, offering her rich objects in return which she wants to obtain for her husband. Her husband rejects her after that and abandons her and she vows to follow him in disguise and trick him into sleeping with her (as a man) for gain, in order to prove he's no better than he should be. In her travels, she approaches an innkeeper (as a woman) claiming to be a male knight in disguise (for protection) who now needs to "return" to male dress, which she asks the innkeeper to procure for her. The titular belt is one of the objects she obtained from the adultrous knight and is a very rich object. She appears in rich male clothing and armor. (And then the paper ends without covering the outcome of the masquerade.)
Stitching Poems and the Limits of Imagination
Anna Riehl Bertolet, Auburn Univ.
Poem ca. 1603 preserved in the British Library, has a woman describing how she would make an embroidery to show man's falseness.
Come give me needle stitch cloth silke and chaire
That I may sitt and sigh and sow and singe,
For perfect collours to describe the aire
A subtile persinge changinge constant thinge.
No false stitch will I make my hart is true,
Plaine stitche my sampler is for to complaine
How men have tongues of hony, harts of rue,
True tongues and harts are one, Men makes them twain.
Giue me black silk that sable suites my hart
And yet some white though white words do deceive
No greene at all for youth and I must part,
Purple and blew, fast love and faith to weave.
Mayden no more sleepless ile got to bedd
Take all away, the work works in my hedd.
Is this taken from an actual sampler? Could it have been intended to be stitched on a sampler? Is the attributed context likely?
Surviving samplers of the intended era are primarily just patterns, text when present is typically the name of the worker and the date it was made. The earliest known with more extensive text is from the late 17th c. and are typically didactic verses, though at least one more original verse is known from this era. So based on known samplers, this text does not fit with likely embroideries. So what about the nature of the verse? We have a poem/verse talking about embroidered text from around the right date where the topic is Queen Elizabeth's death, though likely it was written later as a political critique of King James. This disconnect doesn't provide direct support, then for the alleged date of the above poem, and the poetic reference to a sampler with poetic verses may simply be a literary motif. But there are previous embroideries with significant amounts of text/inscriptions (e.g., historic material like the Bayeaux embroidery, altar cloths). Other literary references to extended embroidered text as in the play "The Fair Maid of the Exchange" which mentions a handkerchief embroidered with a quatrain. But all these are different textile genres than the sampler referenced in the above poem. Samplers were a highly gendered object and the poem seems to be using it as a gendered symbolic displacement of the poem-persona's sorrow/anger. The poem doesn't actually describe the hypothetical sampler at all except in the discussion of color-symbolism. The symbolism of black and white is presented tautalogically and therefore either assumed to be known to the hearer or left open for ambiguous interpretation. (Is black for mourning or anger or depression?) Whereas the meanings are given explicitly for green (youth), purple (fast love), and blue (faith). But although the sampler is presented as a displacement activity for her unhappiness, the close of the poem suggests that the work instead symbolizes/becomes a continued re-hashing of the triggering experience. The formal and fixed structure of the sonnet parallel the formulaic and fixed style of a sampler.
Session 431 Dress and Textiles II: Identity and Self-Expression
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF Presider: Robin Netherton
Familial Identity in Curated Spaces: The Use of Textiles from Anglo-Saxon Wills
Katherine Weikert, Univ. of Winchester
Difficulties in visualizing AS living spaces; too often just excavation diagrams or reconstructed buildings. Adding in material culture gives a better picture, but still doesn't give understanding of interactions and transactions involving the objects/spaces. Look at elite textiles in the AS world to create environment/impression on inhabitants/guests within those domestic spaces. Wall hangings, seat covers, bed clothing including curtains are most commonly mentioned in wills. Significance of combinations of objects, possibly including related sets of objects creating a deliberately "curated" visual/experiential space.
E.g., groupings from different wills showing sets of textiles:
2 wall-hangings, bed curtain, linens, bed-clothing;
Eldest son: wall-hanging and bed-clothes
Second son: wall-hangings for hall and chamber, table cloth and other cloths
Bath Abbey: bed-clothing with wall-hangings, curtain and other cloths
Kinsman: two wall-hangings and two seat covers
Sister: wall-hanging, seat cover, "strichraegl"
Grandson: three wall-hangings, two seat covers
Kinswoman: wall-hanging, seat cover, other cloths
Maternal niece: wall-hangings and seat covers
Kinswoman's daughter:...(slide changed, there were more details)
Actual nature of these objects have only a few clues (e.g., 2 wall-hanging type objects surviving) though we can get extrapolation from things like the Oseberg tapestries or from literary descriptions of domestic furnishings. Late 11th c. poem describing furnishings with both contemporary and classical motifs depicted. Types of information: the nature of the objects (as seen above), the location within the space where these objects are placed, and the materials/motifs (when available). When we have both extensive textiles mentioned in a will and an archaeological understanding of the buildings inhabited by the owner, we can draw up theories as to where those known textiles might have been used. (Example given of Faccombe Netherton, Hampshire ca. 960, home of a Wynflaed whose will is one of the groups above.) The settlement has three significant buildings and the large number of textiles listed in the will would provide an extensive public display within that space. What "message" do these wall-hangings and furnishings convey to the viewers? Family heritage, piety, calendar motifs - generally presteige, control over environment/people. (Further speculation on how likely motifs might have related to the family identidy and connections of Wynflaed, including her daughter Aelfgifu of Shaftesbury, and her grandsons Kings Eadwig and Edgar.)
Cross-Dressing Knights in Medieval Literature
Debbie Kerkhof, Univ. Utrecht
Look at two German 13th century tales "Fraudienst" and "Der Bort". Given how similar male and female clothing is during this era, what does it mean to "cross-dress"? How is it indicated and what does it mean? Very minor differences can be key gender signifiers, and headwear was always important. 12-13th c. is big era for cross-dressing motifs.
Fraudienst - Man (Ulrich) cross-dressing for the purpose of wooing a lady by jousting as a woman. He procured "skirts", "shirts", false braids wound with pearls, and velvet cloaks. He also attempts to behave as a woman is thought to behave and this is viewed as a postive thing. (This is from a rhyming translation so I'd hesitate to take the "skirts" and "shirts" literally.) Emphasis on length of garments, length of braids, use of pearls in headdress. Veiled face so that only the eyes are visible. What was the purpose of the cross-dressing? Evidently it was an open masquerade that everyone was aware of, and was intended to bring him honor, but no mention is made in the paper of the context of why he chose to do it.
Der Bort - Wife is approached by a knight who wants to sleep with her, offering her rich objects in return which she wants to obtain for her husband. Her husband rejects her after that and abandons her and she vows to follow him in disguise and trick him into sleeping with her (as a man) for gain, in order to prove he's no better than he should be. In her travels, she approaches an innkeeper (as a woman) claiming to be a male knight in disguise (for protection) who now needs to "return" to male dress, which she asks the innkeeper to procure for her. The titular belt is one of the objects she obtained from the adultrous knight and is a very rich object. She appears in rich male clothing and armor. (And then the paper ends without covering the outcome of the masquerade.)
Stitching Poems and the Limits of Imagination
Anna Riehl Bertolet, Auburn Univ.
Poem ca. 1603 preserved in the British Library, has a woman describing how she would make an embroidery to show man's falseness.
Come give me needle stitch cloth silke and chaire
That I may sitt and sigh and sow and singe,
For perfect collours to describe the aire
A subtile persinge changinge constant thinge.
No false stitch will I make my hart is true,
Plaine stitche my sampler is for to complaine
How men have tongues of hony, harts of rue,
True tongues and harts are one, Men makes them twain.
Giue me black silk that sable suites my hart
And yet some white though white words do deceive
No greene at all for youth and I must part,
Purple and blew, fast love and faith to weave.
Mayden no more sleepless ile got to bedd
Take all away, the work works in my hedd.
Is this taken from an actual sampler? Could it have been intended to be stitched on a sampler? Is the attributed context likely?
Surviving samplers of the intended era are primarily just patterns, text when present is typically the name of the worker and the date it was made. The earliest known with more extensive text is from the late 17th c. and are typically didactic verses, though at least one more original verse is known from this era. So based on known samplers, this text does not fit with likely embroideries. So what about the nature of the verse? We have a poem/verse talking about embroidered text from around the right date where the topic is Queen Elizabeth's death, though likely it was written later as a political critique of King James. This disconnect doesn't provide direct support, then for the alleged date of the above poem, and the poetic reference to a sampler with poetic verses may simply be a literary motif. But there are previous embroideries with significant amounts of text/inscriptions (e.g., historic material like the Bayeaux embroidery, altar cloths). Other literary references to extended embroidered text as in the play "The Fair Maid of the Exchange" which mentions a handkerchief embroidered with a quatrain. But all these are different textile genres than the sampler referenced in the above poem. Samplers were a highly gendered object and the poem seems to be using it as a gendered symbolic displacement of the poem-persona's sorrow/anger. The poem doesn't actually describe the hypothetical sampler at all except in the discussion of color-symbolism. The symbolism of black and white is presented tautalogically and therefore either assumed to be known to the hearer or left open for ambiguous interpretation. (Is black for mourning or anger or depression?) Whereas the meanings are given explicitly for green (youth), purple (fast love), and blue (faith). But although the sampler is presented as a displacement activity for her unhappiness, the close of the poem suggests that the work instead symbolizes/becomes a continued re-hashing of the triggering experience. The formal and fixed structure of the sonnet parallel the formulaic and fixed style of a sampler.
