Today I went to Tate Modern in the morning, followed by my Tapestry and Embroidery lecture at the V&A.
The Paul Klee exhibition was very interesting, and very extensive. There were about 10 rooms of his work, from all over the world, showing how his work evolved over his lifetime. He was a Swiss born German, whose work was labelled degenerate by the Nazis, and who had to leave Germany during the 1930s for this reason. It is just a pity that I concluded that his work is not to my taste! He was fascinated by colour, and so am I but I found his colours across this exhibition to be sombre and murky, even when light toned. The most interesting thing I identified, surprised me. Some of his early works were described as "from a private collection". I wondered the reason for this. Possibly a collector might not want to be known as an owner of valuable artworks for security reasons, but could it also potentially be that when the Nazis looted artworks during the WWII, subsequent owners are reluctant to identify themselves as they might need to provide provance? But would prestigious galleries use, such works? Or not? Food for thought. (Vanda says a prestigious organisation like the Tate would not be so stupid!).
This week's lecture at the V&A was Embroidery for the Home: Exotic-Realistic 1620-1870. After the 100 years war in France, Arras, previous centre of tapestry was in ruins and the City of Tournai, the main competitor, prospered. It was intermittently fought over by Henry (II?) and the French King Charles and ownership of the city changed in 1513, 1516 and 1521. This led to tapestry weavers becoming refugees who moved to Harlem, Delft and Munich in small workshops and in Brussels in large units. Tapestries were now worked in Sets, or 'chambers' (english term) to cover all the walls of a room. Several scenes were shown in each tapestry.
Tapestries were changing in style. Old tapestries were looking old fashioned with their flat styling. Nuances of painting were desired in tapestry and the weaver became the imitator of realisstic art. Raphael was commissioned in 1519 by the Pope to design tapestries to enhance papal chambers in the style of the Sistine Chapel (as created in 1508-12). As tapestries were highly valuable, they were stolen in the Sack of Rome 1520, then returned to the papacy in 1540, unfortunately damaged. Then these tapestries were stolen by Napoleon.
With the change in style, weaving had to change. Tapestries were woven from side to side, and up to 7 weavers sat side by side, positioned to their skill level. Skies required least skills, faces most, so depending on where the most complicated weaving was positioned, was where the most skilled weaver sat. With the limited range of dyed wools, weavers sometimes used paint after to enhance form, until in 1538 there was an edict, banning the use of paint, except for faces where it was accepted modelling was virtually impossible without a bit of help. When weavers worked from a cartoon, they had to adapt the designs as they wove, because they knew fugitive dye colours aged differently to paint. They tried to avoid using yellow dyes as they were not stable. Quality marks on tapestry began in 1528 with the Brussels tapestries. They used a shield between two Bs as a standard mark.
In 1517 Martin Luther wrote the 95 Theses. This was a catalyst for Protestants to devolve from the Catholic church. Henry VIII & Cardinal Wolsey were extraordinarily rich. When Cardinal Wolsey failed to gain divorce for Henry VIII it led to his downfall in 1559. The Great Hall at Hampton Court was removed from Cardinal Wolsey and taken over by Henry VIII. After the birth of Edward, Henry VIII commissioned 10 tapestries from Brussels weaver workshops of the story of Abraham. Henry paid 10 x the cost of a fully fitted warship for the set of 10 tapestries, including plenty of gold thread. In 1649 they were valued at #8,260. Henry VIII linked himself to Abraham, the biblical leader of the Israelites, because God rewarded Abraham, an older father, with a much sought-after son. Henry VIII owned c2,500 tapestries, which were displayed when the King was in residence. These were carefully kept by the Master of the Wardrobe and were displayed at various coronations and in the Kings Bedchamber.
Embroidery for the home has always been popular. Crewel work was in vogue in the 17th century. Thin worsted woolen thread was worked on fustion ground fabric. Fusion has a linen warp and cotton weft and makes a very hard wearing embroidery fabric. Fustion has a twill weave, woven 20" wide, therefore drapes well. It was worked with long & short stitch, with careful shading. Frequently used for bed hangings and workbags. Workbags were large as they were used to store large hanks of wool. Any broderer or gentlewoman was expected to be competent at crewel work - simple stitches that demonstrated skill in how they were combined.
The Vyvyan bed coverlet was worked in 1715 and had pineapples embroidered on it. Pineapples were rare, and were often rented for display at the society dinner party, therefore were deemed suitable as a motif on exotic embroidery. Furniture was commissioned to display embroiderer's work eg chairs. In the 17th century floristry ws in vogue and embroidered flowers changed to meet fashion. Florists clubs reduced the range of flowers so violas, honeysuckle and peapods disappeared from fashion and anenomes appeaared. Crewel and canvaswork went out of vogue from mid 18th century and what remains tends to be professional work as it was so expensive to commission. For example an embroidered man's waistcoat was priced at 10 guineas when an average man's annual wage was #15.
By 1806 the Jane Austen style was in vogue. White muslin rivalled silk in popularity. Both were embellished with whitework, either in chain stitch or tambour work (with a hook). Crochet developed from tambour work in the 1820s.
By the end of the 18th century realism was in vogue. Berlin woolwork appeared in the 19th century. Wools and patterns originally were imported from Berlin and the embroidery was worked in tent or cross stitch on canvas with careful shading, using 100s of dyed threads. A colour chart was supplied so the right colours could be worked. It was rare to get a charted design before this. Patterns could be beaded. Berlin woolwork disappears by 1870. It was popular to work useful items like slippers. Embroidered slipper uppers could be taken to a showmaker to have made up and would cost as much to make up, as to buy whole!
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