Hello! Still running with work, here, do hope to spend more time with you, soon. In the meantime, this article on the so-called Bayeux Tapestry caught my eye, and I thought it would interest you, too.
Eh?...More......
Just in case you've not heard of it, it's not even a (woven) tapestry. It's really an enormous embroidered account of the Norman (i.e., northern French) conquest of England in 1066.
Recent studies not just of the front, but more importantly of the back--where it's possible to disentangle the Gordian knot about what was done first and, to a certain extent, by whom--have convinced the examining scholars that it was done, not by nuns as previously thought, but by professionals.
The stitches are exactly the same that we still use, today.
Cool!
Want to read the article? Go here.
Bye for now!
Showing posts with label History and all that. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History and all that. Show all posts
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Friday, November 12, 2010
Photoless Friday (04): Mid-term report and ruminations about art
A mid-term report and some ruminations about art...More......
Mid-term report: my current needlepoint point project is going as slowly as molasses uphill in January. Life is getting in the way, and probably will continue to do so for at least a couple of months. Plus, needlepoint is pretty slow going, even in the best of times. Please be patient, and I'll continue creating diagrams for you in the meantime.
Now, for some ruminations about art.
If you read this blog (all three of you!), you'll already agree with me when I say that needlepoint (and cross-stitch and sewing and knitting and...) is an art form.
Art critics and art historians are finally recognizing these forms as equally important as traditional painting, sculpture and print-making. It's not easy...not even for me, as an art historian, who needlepoints. Why they didn't before opens up a whole other can o' worms (depreciation of "women's work," for starters, when women did not have the opportunities to learn and to practice that men had, so it was a double bind situation, and so on and so forth).
I don't want to dwell on the negative aspects.
Rather, I want to present a positive step towards recognizing these media as equally valid art forms. Though for knitting, the "Dritto Rovescio" ("Front Back") exhibit at the Triennale gallery in Milan a few years back was a big step forward. The site's in Italian, but no problem, the pictures are universal: http://www.do-knit-yourself.com/DrittoRovescio.html
I also want to point you to my Photoless Friday ruminations on art on my "My Milan (Italy)" blog, in the hope that they might be interesting to you, too: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/photoless-friday-04-i-dont-know.html
What are you working on?
Mid-term report: my current needlepoint point project is going as slowly as molasses uphill in January. Life is getting in the way, and probably will continue to do so for at least a couple of months. Plus, needlepoint is pretty slow going, even in the best of times. Please be patient, and I'll continue creating diagrams for you in the meantime.
Now, for some ruminations about art.
If you read this blog (all three of you!), you'll already agree with me when I say that needlepoint (and cross-stitch and sewing and knitting and...) is an art form.
Art critics and art historians are finally recognizing these forms as equally important as traditional painting, sculpture and print-making. It's not easy...not even for me, as an art historian, who needlepoints. Why they didn't before opens up a whole other can o' worms (depreciation of "women's work," for starters, when women did not have the opportunities to learn and to practice that men had, so it was a double bind situation, and so on and so forth).
I don't want to dwell on the negative aspects.
Rather, I want to present a positive step towards recognizing these media as equally valid art forms. Though for knitting, the "Dritto Rovescio" ("Front Back") exhibit at the Triennale gallery in Milan a few years back was a big step forward. The site's in Italian, but no problem, the pictures are universal: http://www.do-knit-yourself.com/DrittoRovescio.html
I also want to point you to my Photoless Friday ruminations on art on my "My Milan (Italy)" blog, in the hope that they might be interesting to you, too: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2010/11/photoless-friday-04-i-dont-know.html
What are you working on?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A few historical notes (Part 1)
I’m naturally studious (that sounds much nicer than “curious,” doesn’t it?). Even pure pleasure reading elicits the questions “Who?,” “What?,” “When?,” “Where?,” and “Why?” So, go figure when I read something so richly informative as...More...Elizabeth Bradley’s “Ricami Vittoriani,” the Italian translation of her “Decorative Victorian Needleworks” (see the bibliography of my needlepoint book collection).
She skips over the early history of needlepoint (see, eventually, my “A few historical notes (Part 2)”), and jumps to the period in question, the Victorian age, in which one sees the benefits of industrialization for needlepoint.
The first hand-colored printed grids (for cross stitch) appeared in about 1800. Since their (female!) designer lived in Berlin, the hand work was known as “Berlin work.” These hand-colored printed grids first appeared in England in 1831, and still were quite costly.
The new wealth and leisure time created by industrialization, as well as the appearance of brighter aniline dyes around the mid 19th century, helped to make this pastime immediately popular with ladies of leisure in England and (with patterns already 6, or 7, years old) in the States.
Preferred styles followed the “Fine Arts,” while favored subjects could reflect contemporary, or historical, events: for example, animal themes became quite popular in England, after the opening of the zoo in Regent Park in 1828.
Books and magazines contributed to disseminating ideas, tastes and popular patterns.
She skips over the early history of needlepoint (see, eventually, my “A few historical notes (Part 2)”), and jumps to the period in question, the Victorian age, in which one sees the benefits of industrialization for needlepoint.
The first hand-colored printed grids (for cross stitch) appeared in about 1800. Since their (female!) designer lived in Berlin, the hand work was known as “Berlin work.” These hand-colored printed grids first appeared in England in 1831, and still were quite costly.
The new wealth and leisure time created by industrialization, as well as the appearance of brighter aniline dyes around the mid 19th century, helped to make this pastime immediately popular with ladies of leisure in England and (with patterns already 6, or 7, years old) in the States.
Preferred styles followed the “Fine Arts,” while favored subjects could reflect contemporary, or historical, events: for example, animal themes became quite popular in England, after the opening of the zoo in Regent Park in 1828.
Books and magazines contributed to disseminating ideas, tastes and popular patterns.
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