italian version

FILO FORME anno 6 n. 14

Editorial

Dear Readers,
This issue of Filoforme is larger than normal and we have suspended our usual monographic presentation. In doing this, we would like to make up some lost ground with regard to the three yearly issues, and in this way combine in a single issue the years 2006/2007, thus closing the first cycle of Filoforme.
The principal characteristics of this issue are the articles, which cover a full range of textile sectors, and an increase in the number of pages. These same characteristics will also be carried over to 2008, in a renewed series of Filoforme. Among the initiatives will be a new section dedicated to “Arts Applied to Textiles”. These improved features mean that the cover price and the yearly subscription to the three issues will undergo a slight increase. Current subscribers will receive all the remaining issues in their subscription at the original price.
We hope you will enjoy the new editorial format and that we will be able to provide precise and accurate information to all those who are interested in textiles and related fields.
Il prato

A thread of poetry: Kashmir Amlikar shawls. An embroidered shawl in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art
Elisa Gagliardi Mangilli (page 3)

This contribution introduces the textile production of shawls from Kashmir, with special attention given to the technical nomenclature from the local languages that identify the various phases in the workmanship. The historical introduction to the topic is followed by descriptions of the various types of shawls and the evolution of the decorative motifs.
The second part of the article presents the analysis of a specific Amlikar, with a very interesting iconography, from the splendid collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This figurative shawl is embroidered with a series of images taken from a literary work of one of the most famous Persian poets of the twelfth century, Abu Muhammad Ilyas ibn Mu’ayyad, known as Nizami.
A detailed comparison between the scenes on the shawl and some painted miniatures related to the Khamsa by Nizami illustrate the source of inspiration. The figure of Majnum (which means ‘mad with love’) is confirmed by reading one of the inscriptions on the shawl. References made to a few of the episodes in the poem and their context, make this shawl one of the rare examples of ‘literary shawls’, where poetry and technical ability are harmoniously intertwined.

Some Important Tapestry Interiors in the Netherlands
Hillie Smit (page 15)

In the corpus of tapestries in Dutch collections, the tapestries in the Netherlands are inventoried and published. After volume 1 on the southern provinces (1988) and volume 2 on the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (2004), volume 3 on the remaining public collections will soon be published. This article gives a preview of several important tapestries in interiors from volume 3. There are (all still in situ) two Antwerp sets of the Town Hall in Nijmegen, with the Metamorphoses and the Story of Dido and Aeneas (c. 1677), the Oudenaarde set with Il Pastor Fido (c. 1730) in Museum Simon van Gijn in Dordrecht, Delft Landscapes with animals (c. 1670) in Slot Zuylen, Landscapes with allegorical figures from Amsterdam (1710) in the Town Hall of Enkhuizen, a set of the Seasons (c. 1730-1750) - probably from Berlin - in Castle Amerongen and two tapestries from Tournai (c. 1790) in the Parliament Building in The Hague. The three large Southern Netherlandish tapestries of the Redemption of Man (c. 1500-1520) in Castle De Haar, the Audience of the Emperor of China from Beauvais (c. 1700) and two mythological tapestries from Aubusson (c. 1782-1790) in House Doorn are examples of tapestries later acquired.

An ‘Unedited’ Source of Sixteenth-century Men’s Clothing.
Methodological starting points.
Francesca Piovan (page 20)

This contribution evaluates the accuracy of the clothing and the chronological coherence of an unedited figurative fashion text. The image depicts a young man in jacket and trousers, and it was discovered among the acts of a seventeenth-century notary from Treviso. Based on a comparative analysis with coeval sources, the author proposes a methodological course of investigation.

“Sitting down” to fashion.
Relationships between fashion journals and applied arts in the second half of the 1700s
Isabella Campagnol Fabretti (page 23)

From about 1775 on, the first fashion magazines were published in France. These publications helped to disseminate and circulate the latest styles in the fashion world. Shortly there after, the watercoloured fashion-plates, complete with explanatory captions, were also published in Italy, often presenting the identical French models. Fashionable clothing was also shown on many household objects, such as china and crystal, providing another way of updating the less wealthy or illiterate public on the latest fashion trends. Some of the porcelain and glass produced in the Veneto during this period assist in analysing how new fashions from France and England were received in this area of northern Italy.

Tracking down the Alum of Rome
Stefanella Sposito (page 27)

Alum is extracted from alunite by means of a complex transformation process. This process was known to the earliest of our ancient populations as a mordent for dyeing fabrics. The historical-economic dynamics of the ‘alum route’ influenced much of the trade throughout the Mediterranean, and was a determining factor in the quality of textiles manufactured across Europe. There are numerous literary sources, recipe books, and account books from artisan workshops that attest to the uses and preciousness of alum. These sources show that there are substantial differences in its uses as dyeing stuffs and the application to different fibres, resulting in a wide variety of colors. The discovery of rich alum deposits in 1460 on the mountains in the Tolfa area in the upper Lazio region, northeast of Civitavecchia, produced constant and substantial wealth. The Papal States owned this territory and the mines and alum contributed to the monetary fund, the “Cassa della Crociata”, subsidising the Second Crusade against the Turks. The Apostolic Chamber permitted the extraction and refining of alum in the territory for more than three centuries, contracting open cave mining and later tunnel mining to the most important Florentine, Genovese and Pisan families, such as the Medici, the Chigi, the Pazzi, and the Pallavicino. Historians consider the caves in the Tolfa mountains to be the most important mining undertaking in Europe during the sixteenth century.

The restoration of the vestments belonging to Bishop Fidenzio. A ‘scrap’ of Paduan history
Annamaria Morassutti (page 39)

The textiles undergoing restoration date from 1595. One hundred and forty-six years earlier, the remains of Saint Fidenzio had been dressed, but at the close of the sixteenth century Marco Corner, the Bishop of Padua wanted to redress the Saint with a mitre, chasuble, stole and maniple, all in pure white. The recovery of these extensively deteriorated vestments reopens a ‘scrap’ of Paduan history.

Dignity and splendor. The liturgical clothing and vestments from the 16th-19th centuries in the Diocesan Museum in Rieti
Ileana Tozzi (page 46)

The author presents a critical-historical point of view on the textile collection on display in the Museum of Ecclesiastical Property in the Diocese of Rieti. The collection includes bishop’s vestments, insignias, and liturgical accessories dating between the 16th and 19th centuries. A few of the cataloguing reports for the objects are included in the article.

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