Greetings from Florence!

[ellid]

I am here, settled,and have already seen the Baptistery (OMG mosaics!!!!!) and the Duomo museum (OMG Dontatello and Ghiberti!). The apartment is lovely, my neighbor is very nice, and so far this trip has everything I could have hoped for.

And mine eyes have seen the glory...of the Degli Angli Cushion.

Yes, friends, I did it. I went to Impruneta and saw the cushion in my icon. Here is what I can say about it:

1. It is not Victorian. Absolutely wrong in style and technique for Victorian silk work. Also, the wear on the velvet and silk pieces are consistent with something 500 years old, not 100 years old.

2. It is absolutely, definitely, no doubt about it, pieced. Even better, the technique is not the English paper piecing seen in the earliest known pieced coverlets (c.1700), but the sort of piecing one sees in modern hand pieced patchwork. The one difference that I saw is that some of the smaller pieces had cording couched to cover the seams, presumably because the maker (believed to be Deinara degli Angli) used white thread for her piecing regardless of the color of the patches.

3. The patterns look a great deal like some of the mosaics on the floor of the Baptistery, believe it or not. Given that the degli Anglis were friends with the Medici, it is very possible that Deinara saw the mosaics and was inspired.

4. The folk at the museum are very nice, but they have not the slightest idea of the importance of this piece. They pay more attention to a collection of fairly boring silver votive pieces (including a weird little reliquary that contains a skull topped by a wreath of very faded 17th century fake flowers,plus the owneràs organs in neat little silk gauze bags) and some 17th century vestments than to the only known piece of domestic patchwork dating from prior to 1700. However,it *is* in a climate controlled vitrine, so at least itàs safe.:)

5. Certain textile experts who wrote in the Cambridge History of Western Textiles that there was no such thing as patchwork prior to the 18th century will have to do a bit of rethinking.


And now, off to dinner and a well deserved nightàs rest!

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Sounds like a great arrival :)

Cushion!

[islenskr.livejournal.com]

Yay! Do we get to see pictures when you get home? Did the museum let you photograph it? Are there postcards? Will you submit a new section on patchwork to be included in the next printing of the Cambridge History of Western Textiles? Is there any literature on it at the museum?

Huh? Huh?

Glad you're having such a great time! Please do have a nice Italian coffee for us and bask in the warmer weather. We'll be having a snow storm tomorrow and will be thinking of you! :)

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

Very pleased to read that the cushion is living up to your expectations. And glad to know it's safe - the conditions some textiles are kept under, in poor museums or even just in small ones, breaks the heart, to know they're inexorably deteriorating.

Have a wonderful time!

(The icon is my only textile.)

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

Oh, look! Primary documentation!

I like the idea that there's a connection with the Baptistery mosaics.

So, have you asked the following questions (if appropriate):
- "Do you have more items like this one in storage?"
- "May I see the back side of this piece, please?"
- "Has anyone done any written research on this piece? If so, do you have it, and may I see it?"

And I would ask you:
- You mention velvet and silk pieces: are there other types of fabric represented among the patches? Is it really a hodgepodge of fabrics, or do they all seem to be of a similar high quality?
- You state "domestic patchwork:" What other type of patchwork makes you add that adjective?

Don't answer during your trip: you have far more important things to be doing than responding to LJ comments! :-)

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I already have the answers to your questions:

1. Alas, no. It was made for the tomb of Bishop Antonio di Bellicione degli Angli in 1477, and they have no other examples. Neither does anyone else as far as people know...:)

2. The cushion is displayed on a transparent piece of plastic with a mirror underneath it so that one might see the back. Several areas (particularly the black squares) are worn away, showing the muslin lining.

3. According to my sources in Italy, no one's done a paper specifically on this cushion. There's a couple of pages in the official guidebook to the museum in Impruneta, but that's it. I plan to write to the woman who wrote those pages to see what she's written, but so far it looks as if there's nothing in print on this.

Yet.


Questions for me -

1. All the silks seemed to be of high quality. There were a couple of very tiny pieces of damask, some shot silks, and several velvets. Everything was smoothly woven, and most of the reds were cochineals, which were expensive and hard to get in the 1470's. The guidebook, clearly influenced by ideas about modern American patchwork, stated categorically that these were probably Deinara degli Angli's fabric scraps, but I'm skeptical.

I also disagreed with the guidebook's assertion that the wool backing was of 'home woven wools.' First, Florence and the surrounding area was a major source of wool cloth production; the fleece and some of the fabric came from England, but much of the weaving and finishing (including dyeing) was done in Florence by the wool guild. One of the city's symbols is a lamb for this very reason. Given that the degli Anglis were good friends with the Medici (Bishop Antonio was part of the humanist circle around Lorenzo the Magnificent and was literate in Greek as well as Latin), I find it difficult to believe that the Bishop's niece would have had to weave or dye her own wool when she lived about 15 miles from the major wool production center of southern Europe.

More research is needed, but so far I'm having a blast. This is the most fun I've had in months!

2. Domestic patchwork meaning work for the home, like pillows or coverlets, as opposed to garments or heraldic banners.

[craftykim.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. I'm getting excited just reading what you've said. I'll look forward to seeing your pictures and hearing more about your thoughts n this.

[briony530.livejournal.com]

Could "home woven" mean "woven in in the home city" as opposed to from some other locale, and not "woven in someone's house"?

[a-c-fiorucci.livejournal.com]

3. I was thinking more of unpublished items the museum might have. I remember when Master Hal requested to do close measurement of a wooden chest, and was given full access to use calipers on it, as long as he provided the museum with the information he gathered. He never published the information, but the museum had it. This is the sort of thing I think about when I have access to the museum staff and/or library, to see if they have anything that no one else might know about. :-)

1B: Perhaps scraps of the rich friends she had. I wonder if any of the scraps can be correlated to fabric worn in paintings of the time... :-)

That "Home Woven Wools" sounds vague enough in meaning to be similar to translation problems I've seen with "Perugia/Perugine": Is it made in Perugia, made in the style of Perugia, made in the style of Paris, or made in "that style with the white cloth with blue stripes that we call Perugia"? No one today can confirm absolutely which is correct (and there's a general feeling that multiple ones were correct over time).

Hopefully you have slept well, and can seize the next day of your trip!

[a-c-fiorucci.livejournal.com]

That last was from Peregrine, from my account. But I'm following along with great interest, as well, and can't wait to hear all about it at somepoint!
Arianna

[orphandani.livejournal.com]

More research is needed, but so far I'm having a blast. This is the most fun I've had in months!

Good for you! And I'm having fun vicariously! And even learning some cool stuff along the way! :)

[briony530.livejournal.com]

What the heck are you doing spending time with this...GO ENJOY FLORENCE and bring me something pretty.

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

So sweet! Enjoy your trip, and be sure to give us all the juicy details!

[tree_and_leaf]

Wow - exciting stuff! Hope your trip continues to be of this standard!