Historical velvet loom at the Fondazione Lisio, Florence, Italy.
By the 12th century, Florence had become an important silk production centre, by the 15th, the Guild of Wool Merchants had become a powerful force that shaped the artistic and architectural direction of Florence, by commissioning for example, the Dome or “Duomo” of Santa Maria del Fiore by Brunelleschi. By the end of the century, The Guild of Silk Makers was the largest and most powerful corporation in the city of Florence because of the economic policies established by the Medici, favoring Florentine silk manufacturing.
During this time Florence established a reputation for weaving silk also. There were at least 8 to 10 weave structures that weavers could specialize in. Each master weaver owned at least 3 looms, and sometimes up to 5. His wife and children also participated in the production of woven silk garments. Remuneration was based on the complexity of weaves. Women mainly wove taffetas (silk plain weave) and satins and were paid 5-8 piccioli per arms length. Brocaded velvets were woven exclusively by men and were paid 8 lire, while those who wove flattened boucle velvets were paid 22-25 soldi per arms length. My stay at the Fondazione Lisio for one week made me see how physically exerting it is to weave figured and voided velvets which made me understand why men had to weave them.
Due to this rich textile heritage, Giuseppe Lisio (1870-1943) decided to produce luxury silk fabrics, inspired by historical textiles, documents and notations, books, as well as from many Renaissance paintings/painters: painters like Botticelli, Cimabue, Ghirlandaio, Masaccio , Bronzino, Signorelli among others. These artists rendered the textiles so realistically that it’s clear to see whoever commissioned these paintings took great pride in the textiles depicted, which conveyed their status and importance. I saw many of these paintings when I visited the Uffizi and a number of paintings really impressed me with the attention to detail in portraying the fabrics: Bronzino’s Portrait of Grand Duchess Eleanore of Toledo with Son Giovanni, 1545 and, Botticelli’s Primavera. There are many more paintings there to dazzle the textile enthusiast.
Photo credit: scan from the book Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings 1300-1550. Lisa Monnas.
Jacquard looms did not arrive in Florence until 1824, while in Lyon, by 1825, statistics show that they had 4200 jacquard looms in use. Giuseppe Lisio had these magnificent draw looms built according to Renaissance specifications and plans with the addition of a jacquard device. Over the years he had several stores that sold the fabrics he produced, and presently one remains open in Rome. Commissions for liturgical vestments, from all over the world as well as the Vatican, movie and theatre costumes, upholstery, drapery, and wall coverings , fashion designers such as Versace, Valentino, Gucci and Fendi have been and are part of the Lisio repertoire. Movies such as The Agony and the Ecstasy with Charles Heston and Rex Harrison, The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (below) and more recently, The Pirates of the Carribean with Johnny Depp, have used fabrics from Lisio or commissioned fabrics from them.
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On the right, detail of the gown Elizabeth Taylor is wearing for the movie, The Taming of the Shrew.
Bibliography
The Art of of Silk: A History of Silk Manufacturing in Tuscany . Daniella Degli’Innocenti, Mattia Zupo.
One Hundred Years of Lisio Fabrics: 1906-2006. Paola Marabelli and Serena Venturi.
Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings 1300-1550. Lisa Monnas.
© Line Dufour 2015
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Fiber Art Now
MAGAZINES THAT FEATURE WEAVING
Fiber Art Now http://fiberartnow.net/
In this current issue, a lot of tapestry weaving is featured (and often is). The international tapestry installation, Fate, Destiny and Self Determination/le sort, le destin et l'auto-determination, will be in the summer issue of this magazine.
Fibre Focus
Quarterly magazine published the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners
comes with membership ($55 annually)
Handwoven
Textiles
Talks. Presentations. Workshops. Exhibitions.
Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles/Centre de Textiles Contemporain de Montreal, 5800 rue St Dennis
Can't make it to Lisio but still want to learn about jacquard weaving (among other things)? Sign up for a one week workshop (in English) taking place over the next couple of months. The main difference is that in these courses you learn the programming for jacquard weaving. It is a cathedral of looms and exciting to see the weaving space filled with so many different kinds of looms. http://www.textiles-mtl.com/en/classes-de-maitre/
Ontario College of Art and Design University
Be sure to check out the fibre art at this year end exhibition of student work THIS WEEKEND ONLY. Ask where the textile department is situated ( or do they call it material arts? ).....there will be some fibre related art or work that references fibre practices and techniques throughout the premises. http://www2.ocadu.ca/event/6451/ocad-universitys-100th-graduate-exhibition-gradex
Royal Ontario Museum
Fran Gurwitz let us know about this:
Textiles are a vibrant expression of Mexico's enduring cultural legacy. Continually evolving, they combine remarkable technical skill with exquisite artistry, and reflect the diversity and achievements of Mexico's many civilizations over thousands of years. Curator Chloë Sayer, the world’s foremost expert on Mexican textiles will take us on a whirlwind tour of this fascinating and beautiful country, as seen through its stunning and varied costumes.http://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/exhibitions/viva-mexico-clothing-and-culture
¡Viva México! Clothing and Culture opens at in the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume on May 9, 2015.
This event includes a post-event reception.
Speaker
Chloë Sayer is a freelance specialist in Mexican art and culture. In 2010 and 2012 she was the Veronika Gervers Research Fellow in Textiles and Costume History at the ROM; now she is a Research Associate with the Textiles section of the ROM's Department of World Cultures. She has made ethnographic collections for the British Museum, and has worked on television documentaries for the UK's Channel 4 and the BBC. Her many books include Arts and Crafts of Mexico (1990), Textiles from Mexico (2002), and Fiesta: Days of the Dead and Other Mexican Festivals(2009). She has also written Mexico: Clothing & Culture to accompany the current exhibition.
Museum for Textiles, Toronto
The Textile Museum of Canada is pleased to present Artist Textiles: Picasso to Warhol from May 2 to October 4, 2015. This acclaimed exhibition offers a fascinating overview of textile design by some of the world’s most celebrated artists including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Sonia Delaunay, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, Andy Warhol, and Alexander Calder. With over 200 printed works on fabric, fashion and accessories – many on public display for the first time – Artist Textiles brings to Canadian audiences work representing the breadth of art movements such as Fauvism, Cubism, Constructivism, Modernism, Surrealism and Pop Art, as well as the work of leading fashion designers and textile manufacturers.Highlighting the artists’ use of textiles as a medium for combining art and mass production, the exhibition shines new light on creative practice across the twentieth century in Europe and North America. “Artist Textiles tells us so much about the breadth of artists’ intention and imagination, even for those we think we know quite well,” says TMC Executive Director Shauna McCabe. “That names such as Picasso, Matisse and Warhol produced such sophisticated designs for use in everyday life suggests that their professional worlds were much more varied than one might expect. Clearly, the intersection of art and design has consistently engaged artists – modern to conceptual to contemporary.”
Artist Textiles: Picasso to Warhol is circulated by the Fashion and Textile Museum, London, UK and is on view at the TMC May 2 – October 4, 2015. The Textile Museum of Canada is located in downtown Toronto (55 Centre Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 2H5) and is open daily 11-5 pm, Wed 11-8 pm. Visit www.textilemuseum.ca for more information on all of our exhibitions and programs.
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Chair caning (weaving for furniture) with Donna Kim at Edge of Your Seat. Go to the link below to find out when classes will be happening
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=6cabba50e96aa5ed24a3c303f&id=f7b6bf8eb2&e=8dfe32aed3
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Slow Fiber Studios Presents:
Jiro Yonezawa
Bamboo Sculptural Artisan from Japan
Various Dates: July 25th - August 22, 2015
Join us in welcoming Jiro Yonezawa by attending a series of lectures, workshops and exhibitions at our World Shibori Network headquarters and the Slow Fiber Studios Workshop Space in Berkeley, CA this July and August.
Jiro Yonezawa has been a bamboo sculptural artisan for 35 years. He completed his training at Oita Prefectural Beppu Industrial Art Research Institute in Japan and apprenticed with Ono Makakatsu. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and has shown in exhibitions in the United States, Japan, and Europe, such as SOFA New York and SOFA Chicago.
This May he will be awarded a special prize (tokusho) from the Japan Contemporary Craft Exhibition (Nippon Shinkogeiten), held in Tokyo. His work has been selected twice for the prestigious Japan Nitten National Fine Arts Exhibit, and is in many public and private collections. From 1998-2008 Jiro lived in the United States, he now resides and works in his hometown in southern Japan. For more info about this event - https://www.robly.com/archive?id=ed4db32b4216dc938f4ef42e970a6dc4
FINAL NOTE
In the past few years I have had the privilege of teaching weaving to some very distinguished artists and art teachers (in my estimation), for example, Derek Sullivan http://jessicabradleyinc.com/artist/derek-sullivan,
Erin Lewis http://www.erinlewis.ca/Home.html
and more recently, Phillippe Blanchard, also a full time professor at OCADU.
His sister has a goat farm in the outaouis region and produces cashmere yarn from goats, among other things. Here is a link:
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