Mediocre news and excellent news

[ellid]

Mediocre news - three for three on the jobs I've interviewed for. *whiff* Oh well, time to start over! *rolls eyes* No one said it would be easy....


And excellent news - the Impruneta cushion (see my icon) is unquestionably medieval, and unquestionably patchwork. And there is NOTHING in the scholarly literature about it.

Even if I have to charge everything on my credit card, looks like I'm going to Italy this winter to view it myself....

Comments

[ellid.livejournal.com]

There really isn't a controversy over the date - yet. The problem is that it is, as far as anyone knows, the ONLY piece of complex patchwork surviving from the 15th century. There are a handful of heraldic pieces and three (possibly four) written references to patchwork prior to 1700, and one or two paintings showing patchwork coverlets. That's it.

This is why I'm writing a paper for DISTAFF for K'zoo in 2008. Now that the provenance has been confirmed as definitely prior to 1477, the next step is to get a cheap flight to Tuscany, find my way to Impruneta without getting lost somewhere near Lorenzo de' Medici's Secret Vaults, and actually see it with my own eyes. THEN I can do a full scholarly write-up.