The Lady and the Unicorn

How did I miss seeing this for so many years? I was in Paris in 2000, but for some reason this was not on my MUST SEE list…I was in Paris in 1972, while I was an art student, and spent every day in the Louvre, but that was before I knew anything about tapestry. This time I had only one day to visit museums, and this was my top choice.

Even though the guide books now tell you that The Lady and the Unicorn is in the Musée Nationale du Moyen Age, in fact, you won’t find that on a map. They still call it the Cluny.

The Cluny Abbot Hotel was built, as a residence for the abbots, at the end of the 15th century, next door to the “thermes,” Gallo-Roman Baths dating to the 1st-3rd centuries.  The building is beautiful, in that magical medieval style.

Before we found the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries we were pleasantly surprised by an exhibit of Coptic tapestry fragments from 5th and 6th century Egypt. 

What a treat! These tiny tapestries are so finely woven and so expressive.

I know that many tiny Coptic tapestries were either applied to, or woven into garments. They are well known for their use of eccentric wefts.  

The Copts were (and are) a population of Christians living in Egypt, and their tapestries are legendary in textile history. What a thrill to see these up close.

Finally, the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. I was practically speechless (which anyone who knows me would realize is quite unusual!)

As a tapestry weaver I am so impressed with the technical virtuosity necessary to achieve the designs (like the patterns in the Lady’s dresses, for example).  As an artist it is clear that these tapestries were designed by a master of composition.

They are so well preserved, the colors are bright and most of the silk yarns are still there, and still lustrous (silk can often become brittle and just fall apart over time). That said, the bottom edges had rotted and been replaced at one time.

(please excuse the poor quality of the photos…the light in the gallery is very low, to protect the tapestries from further fading, and flash photography is forbidden)

As is often the case with old tapestries, there is a lot of uncertainty and controversy about their exact meaning.

Experts believe that these tapestries are about the 5 senses: Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing and Sight, plus a sixth sense: The Heart, or perhaps, Understanding. “A Mon Seul Désir” (To My Only Desire) is inscribed on a banner in this sixth tapestry. The symbolism is far too complex for me to write about. Apart from the lady herself, the lion, the unicorn, the trees, and her lady in waiting, there is a mille fleurs background, and many animals. Nothing is insignificant.

The designer has been established as the Master of Anne de Bretagne, but apparently there is no certainty about exactly where the tapestries were woven. It’s likely that they were designed in Paris and woven in Flanders (or perhaps Paris) around 1490-1500. They were commissioned by the Le Viste family of Lyon.

You can get some information, and see complete photos on Wikipedia. I love that it says it “is often considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe.”  YEAH!

There is also information on Tracy Chevalier’s website (she wrote the novel “The Lady and the Unicorn”).

I bought a book in the gift shop: The Lady and the Unicorn, by Elisabeth Delahaye, Director, Musee de Cluny, 2007. ISBN: 978 2711 850358. The photos are wonderful, and the author does a good job of explaining things in just 96 pages.

It is not available on Amazon.com. There are 2 copies at www.abebooks.com, the English one is about $30, but the French one is $668.75 (???). You might be able to order the book from the museum gift shop for 18 Euros, but I don’t know if they will ship to the USA, or how much that would cost. Make sure you order the English version, unless, of course, you prefer French.

Technorati Tags: Tapestry,Cluny Museum,The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries

Youthful Indiscretions…

Some of you have heard the story of how one of my tapestries went missing from an exhibit. This was in about 1980, and the exhibit was in the galleries at the Durham Arts Council in Durham, NC. I also had a studio space in that building. (Looking at their website now, I see it’s the same building, but it was renovated in 1988…not a moment too soon; my studio was on the ground floor and sometimes when it rained, water came through the 2 stories above me, right through the light fixture, and filled up the empty jars holding my paintbrushes!)

I was really upset about the tapestry being stolen, because I had finished it just in time for the exhibit, and entered it without taking any photos.

A few weeks later I saw something strange poking out from a large potted plant, and it was my tapestry. Someone had slid it off the tacky dowel it was hanging on (this was before I had a clue about velcro and all that), folded it up, and stuck it in the pot.

At the time I assumed it was a thief who intended to steal it and then chickened out.

It was only many years later, after taking a library school course on Intellectual Freedom and Censorship, that it occurred to me, this may have been an act of censorship rather than a botched theft. For reasons that are unfathomable to me, some people are offended by images of the human body, even when highly abstracted. Lucky for them they don’t live in Florence where they would be having the heebie-jeebies daily!

 At the time that I wove this, I was weaving mostly functional items and had very little tapestry experience.  The weft is a combination of strange rayon-ish synthetic yarns, with a border of a shiny black chenille, and the warp is 12 ply cotton tobacco twine, set very coarsely, maybe 4 epi. Hey, it was what I had, and I was a poor starving student married to a poor starving student.

The title is Life Study. It’s about 30 x 18 inches. I wince at the messy fringes top and bottom and the cheesy dowel.

The interlocks are VERY messy, but I still like the design.  It’s a holdover from my high school days when I painted many posters of abstracted nudes, and my family would play “Find the body.”

I was not trying to be mysterious, I just thought it was fun to look at the shapes of positive and negative spaces (although I had never heard those terms used).

I ran across this tapestry in my attic recently, and decided to write about it since I have had NO time to weave anything new this summer. Hopefully that will soon change.

Rag Rugs

A few months ago I started weaving a series of 3 rag rugs, for that most banal of reasons: they will match my new kitchen!

It is light green, dark green and white…not so much from choice, but because the walls are vitrolite historic structural glass.

I used to weave rag rugs many many years ago, in fact the ones I have are at least 30 years old! They are so useful; I put them near the door in the winter, and leave my wet boots on them to dry.

I use them under the Christmas tree, or on a table that has houseplants on it. They can be machine washed and dried.

I am  very low tech, I cut the strips with scissors.

I did not like how wavy the fabric got when I tried tearing it. My strips are fairly narrow, about 3/4” wide.

I fold the fabric and cut a point at the ends, so I can overlap the strips during the weaving and not have a big lump.

I discovered years ago that sometimes the ugliest fabric makes the prettiest rug.

Bright green fabric with large pink frogs was very dramatic when woven, but I felt a little cruel squishing the frogs into blips of pink!

I love the way striped fabric looks when cut across the stripes. Like a tapestry design but much much easier!

Some of these fabrics were purchased for 39c per yard, about 20 years ago.

This crazy cartoony fabric had many printing errors but I bought about 10 yards of it, and have gotten a lot of good use from it. Besides that, it makes me laugh.

They were in the scrap bin at my favorite fabric warehouse, Lorraine Fabrics, in Pawtucket, RI. 

The Kokopelli fabric was upstairs with the $1.99 quilting fabrics. I love knowing that those tiny specks of black are little kokopellis hiding in my rug.

When I first started weaving rag rugs, I cut up old wool skirts and pants that I bought at the thrift store.

They had special days when you could buy a bag full of clothes for $3. It was a pain cutting them up, but the wool did make nice rugs, heavier than my cotton ones.

Later, when I started buying fabric, a quilter friend became quite angry at me for “ruining” good quilting fabrics by cutting them up.

I was a bit perplexed, as I thought I was making something beautiful, but I guess it’s hard to appreciate the lovely patterns on the fabric when it’s cut up and woven.

In case you don’t already think I’m a bit obsessive, I lay the fabric strips into the shed very carefully to make sure the right side of the fabric is always facing up (most fabrics have a definite right side). So my rugs have a right and a wrong side. One can twist the fabric in the shed to make a pattern of light and dark, but mostly I just like the dark (printed) side up.

I also like to overlap in such a way that the new color nestles under the old color and it makes a nice kind of a pointy join. I guess we all have our little obsessions!

Once upon a time, about 30 years ago, I wove a large tapestry using fabric strips. It was based on a small watercolor of a “yield” sign.

I really enjoyed playing with the colors and patterns of the fabrics.

If you look carefully, you can see those squished pink frogs.

The only problem was that it was so noisy weaving it, using a beater (and you have to beat HARD for rag rugs), in the room right next door to my baby’s room.

The only time I had for weaving was when she was napping, and my weaving would waken her immediately, so I got very little done.

I discovered soon after that weaving a tapestry, Gobelin style (using leashes instead of harnesses and treadles) could be completely silent, and that’s part of the story of how I became a tapestry weaver.

Sara Hotchkiss weaves gorgeous rag rugs and tapestries, and exhibits them at her Old Point Comfort Gallery in Waldoboro, Maine. The annual Studio Open House is August 6th and 7th, so if you’re in the area, check it out.

If you’re not in the area, maybe you should be! Maine is a lovely spot for a summer vacation!

I still don’t understand how she makes her joins without messy lumps, which was a problem for me.

Sara weaves rugs in all sizes from small mats, to large room-sized rugs, and she will custom design and weave whatever you need for your house.

Technorati Tags: Tapestry,Rag Rugs,Rug Weaving,Weaving

Tapestries in Milan

 Recently my husband had a meeting in Varese, northern Italy, not far from Milan.  It didn’t take much arm twisting to convince me to join him.

Then I remembered that I have a Tapestry List* friend who lives in Milan, so I contacted Elena Rossi by email and she very kindly offered to pick me up at my hotel so we could visit the tapestries in the Castello Sforzesco. 

*The tapestry list is a wonderful yahoo group to discuss all things tapestry. To subscribe:  tapestry2005-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

I was quite relieved that I didn’t have to find my way to Milan alone, thanks so much Elena!

I brought her a copy of the Small Tapestry International: Connections catalog, and Elena gave me a gorgeous book on the Battle of Pavia Tapestries, which are in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.These tapestries are so well preserved, the colors and the details are amazing.

It was great to have a native of Milan to show me around this lovely city.

The Castello Sforzesco is in an enormous castle, which looks very much like a fortress, in the center of Milan. 

 

It was built from the 14th to 16th centuries.

We saw gorgeous mosaics and frescoes, 15th century weaponry, renaissance sculpture, musical instruments, and rooms decorated by Leonardo da Vinci; but our goal was to see the Trivulzio Tapestries of the Twelve Months.

The tapestry gallery was not open until the afternoon, so we took a break for a quick lunch, and then Elena showed me the sights.

The Duomo is awe-inspiring; it is the 4th largest cathedral in the world, and took almost 600 years to complete! Look how tiny the people look in this photo!

As we entered the building the guard at the door informed me that my shorts were too short (they are pretty long shorts) and made me pull them down to cover my knees.

Good thing I was wearing a long t-shirt or my belly would have been hanging out! Are bellies more acceptable than knees?

I was also impressed with the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II, an elegant 19th century covered arcade, with high end fashion shops. Here is a youtube video about it.

There is a mosaic of a bull, and if you put your heel on his testicles, and spin around 3 times, it is supposed to bring good luck (and perhaps improve your sex life!)

I tried it just in case…

Finally it was time to return to the museum for the Trivulzio Tapestries of the Twelve Months!

These were woven for Marquis  Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (1440 or 1441 – December 5, 1518)   in 1503-1509.

Here are two details of December.

There is a wealth of symbolism in these tapestries, which the people of the time would have understood easily. In the 21st century, sad to say, we are pretty clueless! 

I am always impressed with the way fabrics were represented in tapestry.

By the time we had seen all 12 of these tapestries I was pretty tired, and very grateful for Elena, who took me to the train station, helped me to buy the correct ticket and helped me find the train back to Varese.

Another wonderful tapestry adventure!

Technorati Tags: Tapestry,Tapestry Milan,Castello Sforesco

Anne Jackson Knotting Workshop

Back in April 2011, Anne Jackson came to the American Textile History Museum to present a lecture about her work.

I knew that TWiNE (Tapestry Weavers in New England) members were fascinated by her tapestries and curious about her knotting technique, so I convinced Anne to present a day long workshop the day before the lecture.

Anne Jackson: Witch Hunt Maleficium (in memorium)

We met at the museum, in their lovely education room.  I supplied all of the materials, which are pretty simple. All you need is a piece of Sound Board (“Tentest” in UK), some T-pins or large sewing pins, and some yarn. The yarn should be smooth, and can be cotton, rayon, linen or a blend of thin threads.

(Right: Anne Jackson, Leaving Eden, detail)

We spent the morning learning the technique, then in the afternoon Anne presented a slide talk about Creativity, Sources of Inspiration and Working Practices. Some  of the participants shared images and comments on these topics as well, and it was really inspiring.

In my first knotting effort (below), you can see that we started off using a heavy cotton, and we used it with both warp and weft doubled.

So the knots at the top (the left in this image) are very big.  Then I used the same yarn (Lily “Sugar and Cream,” a good weight for both warp and weft for learning), only not doubled. When I got home I thought it would be simple to make a sampler like my tapestry students: Squares, Triangles, Curves….it turned out to be more challenging than I expected.

I tried color blending, using combinations of thin cotton, and played with dropping warps to create triangular shapes at the end. This is a great technique for making shaped pieces.

I have found knotting to be totally addictive.

For a few weeks, every time I went into the studio to weave, I found myself pulled away from the loom. It’s really fun to just play with something new, to see what it can do.  

I made myself some smaller boards for travel, and then realized that, unlike tapestry, it is very simple to just remove an unfinished piece from the board, fold it up until later, and pin another one onto the same board.

So with one board, a small box of pins, and some yarn, you can work on many pieces simultaneously….that may or may not be a good thing for me, I don’t need encouragement to start new projects before finishing the old ones.

By the way, the sound board is very cheap, but I had to buy it at a real, old fashioned lumberyard. Neither Lowes nor Home Depot had even heard of it. It also sheds, and makes a big mess, so after the workshop I painted my boards them with 2 or 3 coats of white latex house paint (including all the edges). If you were really enterprising you could mark a grid on it too.

Even with a cartoon pinned underneath, I have found it difficult to make well defined shapes, especially vertical lines.

So I’ve been playing with simple stripes.  For the piece above I used a space dyed microfiber knitting yarn. LOTS of fun!  (3x6”)

It looks really cool on the back side too.

My latest project is TINY, only 1.5 inches wide. I’m using a linen warp, which I really like. It behaves very nicely, and since the warps are loose, there are none of the tension problems I have using linen warp on a floor loom.

Although I understand how to do the knotting, I still can’t figure out how Anne achieves such perfect shapes and so much detail in her large knotted tapestries.

I guess it’s the same way you get to Carnegie Hall:

Practice, practice, practice.

 

Technorati Tags: Tapestry,Knotted Tapestry,Anne Jackson,Knotting