Lidia Morelli

I received a lovely little book called Mani Álacri as a gift and I was curious about it's author Lidia Morelli. I did a little a research, and as it usually does, one thing leads to another and another and pretty soon what I thought would be a nice subject for a quick post turns into something you could write a good long article on.

First things first, the book. Mani Álacri is small little hardcover book with a cloth cover like they used to do, the dedication page is dated December 1933. Mani Álacri translates literally to "lively hands", the subtitle Libro di Lavori Femminili is the "book of feminine works". There were several different cover designs for this volume, here are a couple of other ones:

In the introduction, the author states that before writing this manual, she took a close look at the others which had come before and found that while there were lots of magazines and pattern books, there wasn't much in the way of a real and proper manual which offered technical instructions. She does quite well in just under 500 pages to provide just that. She also stresses that it is very important to teach children these techniques and that the young mind is more capable than people give it credit for. There are mostly black and white photos but there are the occasional colour plates as was normal for books of the period.

In her illustrations I like that she shows how to hold the needle:

There are photos in this volume of Italian embroideries as well as traditional embroideries which are well-known to other countries but especially for the Italian works, the photos are of pieces I haven't seen in other books.

As always I am fascinated by the women behind these things.

Lidia Morelli was born in Turin on the 10th of June, 1871 to Efisio Morelli and Vittoria Ceresole Morelli and died February 7, 1946. As far as I can tell she had two brothers, Ennio and Dario and three sisters, Ifigenia, Alda and Dora. Her brother Ennio became quite a well-known artist. She graduated at 18 as a teacher and pursued Linguistics and Literature going on to become a writer and a journalist. In 1895 she won a teaching competition. Her earlier books were written under the pen name of Donna Clara. I don't have a complete list of all her writing, but here are some of the items that we found:

Dalla Cucina al Salotto. New Edition, 1925.

• Dalla Cucina al Salotto. Enciclopedia della vita domestica. Turin, 1905.
• Far molto con poco. L'arte di creare buoni piatti con residui di cucina. 1909.
• La cuoca medichessa. Un regime in cucina per ogni malattia. With Dott. Nazione. Turin, 1913.
• Nel paese della trina. Milan, 1914.
• Lavori nuovi. 1914?
• Gioielli antichi. Milan, 1914.
• Vincoli d’arte. Milan, 1915.
• Lavori per i nostri soldati. Turin, 1918.
• Cocci. Milan, 1920.
• Storie d’inverno e di estate. Rome, 1922.
• Come devo comportarmi? Libro per tutti. With Anna Vertua Gentile, Milan, 1929.
• Massaia 900 : la cucina moderna interpretata da il capo cuoco del re. Turin, 193?

La Casa che vorrei avere. 1931.

• La casa che vorrei avere: come ideare, disporre, arredare, abbellire, rimodernare la mia casa. Milan, 1931.
• Come sistemare e governare la mia casa. Hoepli, Milan, 1932. ** With illustrations by Ennio Morelli. (Ennio was Lidia's brother.)
• Mani Álacri. Libro di lavori femminili. Turin, 1933.
• Le vie del buon gusto. Milan, 1935.
• Massaie di domani: conversazioni di economia domestica : per le scuole secondarie di avviamento professionale a tipo industriale femminile. Turin, 1935.
• Nuovo ricettario domestico: enciclopedia moderna per la casa. Milan, 1935.

L'Arte più difficile. 1936.

• L’arte più difficile; saper vivere con il prossimo. Milan, 1936.
• Le massaie contro le sanzioni. Turin, 1936.
• Le massaie e l'autarchia. Turin, 1937.
• Nuovi orrizonti per la vostra mensa. Preface only, 1937.
• Il lavoro della giovinetta italiana: nelle scuole secondarie di avviamento professionale a tipo industriale femminile. With Irene Faccio, Turin, 1938.
• Per voi massaie d'Italia. Turin, 1938.
• Per lui che viene. With Nello Palmieri & Maria Meschini Tursini, Rome, 1940.
• La vita sobria. Rome, 1941.
• Pentola magica P.A. brevettata. Turin, 1941.
• Casa nostra: trattato di economia domestica. With Erminia Macerati, Milan, 1942.
• Cirio per la casa 1942. Milan, 1942.
• Puericultura. Aggiunta al Volume: Per voi, massaie d'Italia. Turin, 1942.
• Vita di casa: economia domestica. Cappelli, Bologna, 1942. 
• Casa e bambini: Conversazioni di economia domestica per le alunne della terza classe della scuola media. With Giovanni Battista Allaria, Turin, 1943. **With artwork by Enrico Montalto di Fragnito (Enrico was Lidia's nephew by her sister Dora).

They are books about cooking, cooking with leftovers, cooking for illness; needlework, housekeeping, house management, childcare, etiquette, lace, jewelry, art; stories, occupations for soldiers.

Lidia Morelli wrote articles for the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Her books were updated and reprinted many times over her long and active publishing career. She wrote for the architectural magazine La Casa Bella (which became Casabella) on Parma Embroidery and Petit Point among other topics.

La Casa Bella no. 42, June 1931.

Together with Elisa Ricci, Lidia Morelli wrote the section on Embroidery for the Italian Enciclopedia Treccani.

No evidence yet of a husband or children but the dedication page in my copy of Mani Álacri is a sad note to a dear "Cecilia" who seems to have died as a child. It seems to indicate that Cecilia was a niece who enjoyed needlework.

On the Italian Giornalism and History website there is a small paragraph about her:

"A little closed, a little reserved, a highly educated and sincerely modest woman, the soul of an artist and essentially feminine, a ready intellect to critique and tempered by an infinite goodness" (F. Sacchetti Parvis, 1929). Ms. Morelli made the first steps in the field of publishing for women in 1905 with the volume Dalla cucina al salotto [From the kitchen to the livingroom]. In the thirties she was at the centre of an unquestionable success that even included the radio (G. Isola, Abbassa la tua radio, per favor [Please turn down your radio]. Florence, 1990, pg. 112).

It looks like Lidia Morelli did more than one radio show or segment. I looked up the above-quoted text on GoogleBooks but I can only see a snippet which mentions Radio Torino, a radio station in Turin, and Radiocorriere, a weekly program publication for the RAI broadcasting company.

There is so much more research to do and I'll update when we find out more.

A tremendous thankyou to Bianca Rosa who did lots of research for me during the snowstorms in Bologna this past winter!!!

Carolina Amari and Casalguidi Embroidery

As I mentioned in a previous post, Ivana Palomba has written her thesis for her degree in History and the Protection of Art Heritage on Carolina Amari and her role in needlework and women's emancipation in the early part of the 20th century. The thesis has been published as the volume: L’Arte ricamata. Uno strumento di emancipazione femminile nell’opera di Carolina Amari [Embroidered Art. An instrument of the emancipation of women in the work of Carolina Amari], Le Arti Tessili, 2011. Text in Italian.

This is an important work for the history of needlework and is well-documented and researched. There are lots of notes to read and bibliography titles to investigate. Last year I started to tell you about Casalguidi Embroidery and the Tuscan town it takes its name from so I asked the author if she would mind if I translated some of the chapter on that for you. She generously granted my request so the following is translated from the chapter: Carolina Amari’s Work in Italy and America, sub-heading The Casalguidi School.

***
[...] At the end of the 19th century the little town survived daily, sharing the extreme poverty in which most of the population languished with the neighbouring villages, devoted mainly to agriculture, the manufacture of sorghum brooms and the working of straw.

A clear and intense picture of the living conditions of the time, outside of the many historical documents, is given to us by the simplicity of a study done by the grade 5 students of the local elementary school under the guidance of their teacher. If memory, the subject of the study, also takes into consideration the experiences of life some eighty years ago, it could similarly reflect more remote situations, the water which froze in the water jugs of the bedroom washstands in the winter months, the only pair of shoes worn by whoever got up the earliest on Sunday and the doctor, sometimes called too late in order to save on a visit and medications with the risk of paying the priest and for the funeral, while on the poor table bread dominated, its slices were at best flavoured with a piece of herring or lard which hung from the centre of the ceiling.

In contrast to all this, to drown the bitterness of a miserable life for most people, the seasons and anniversaries were an occasion to get together, to sing and dance on the threshing floor to the sound of a hurdy gurdy with a good glass of wine. The woman, between the harshness of the fields and family life, stole the time from the long day to make a braid of straw or netted gloves in order to contribute to the meagre family income besides sewing, darning for all the members of her family, as well as embroidering because embroidery gave value to the poorest furnishing and even made a poor sheet seem valuable.

Scanned image by TuttoRicamo.

This is the reality that still existed at the beginning of the century when Casalguidi sprang to notoriety for the fame of a new and unique embroidery broadcast by the publication of a booklet, the work of Adele della Porta (Ricamo di Casal Guidi [Casal Guidi Embroidery], Sonzogno, Milan, c. 1915) which she describes as follows:  

“Just released - this would be the latest and prettiest display of embroidery - the Casal Guidi stitch, with which you can make the most diverse objects with a new personal touch, [...] taking it’s name from a hamlet near Pistoia, Casal Guidi, where it is made on a large scale and where there is a kind of workforce in a special school that is dedicated to this delicate work.”

Over time it came to be believed that the creation of an embroidery so artistic was owed to the Morelli sisters in whose workshop, primarily managed by Giuseppina, a number of young girls of the area came together to learn embroidery techniques handed down from generation to generation.

Different publications on the embroidery of Casalguidi have ventured along the same lines in the last decades, but the latest research has been able to verify that the mind capable of creating the new, captivating and artistic technique was that of Carolina Amari. One of the most authoritative sources is that of Elisa Ricci who, in her Ricami Italiani antichi e moderni [Ancient and Modern Italian Embroidery] (Le Monnier, Florence, 1925), illustrating a bonnet from the Iklè Collection published as an Italian artifact from the 16th century in the Industrial Art Museum of St. Gallen Catalogue, has this to say:

“It certainly seems Italian, if only for the balanced layout of full and empty areas which is very much a quality of ours. And probably the date is also correct [...] Our bonnet is made with stitches which do not go through the fabric, but are wrapped around the basting threads and the filler, in such a way to remain raised in the “air”. Perhaps this stitch, that will then be a lace stitch, is what, among others, Tagliente cited. More than for a design in the books of the first half of the 1500s, it is suited to this style of embroidery. This simple work, that easily creates a raised effect and which is solid and washable, taken by Carolina Amari and adapted with her unerring taste to objects for present day use has made the fortune of, and given fame to, a small Tuscan village whose name it bears. Casalguidi embroidery is now made almost everywhere.” 

It is a declaration then that allows no room for doubt but there is another, previous source, precisely in 1924 in which Emilia Marini illustrating the glorious embroideries of Italy asserts that:

“Almost every region has its own tradition, you could say it’s own stitch, created by some unknown artist who left it as an inheritance to her countrywomen. And yet, there are those who endeavour and seek and try and almost always succeed to augment our artistic heritage. Not many years ago Camilla* Amari invented a beautiful embroidery in Casal Guidi.”

 (*As is easily understood, the baptismal name is incorrectly written.)

And in the Cucirini Cantoni Coats: Manuale di ricamo (Milan, 1978. [Translator’s note: Published in English as the Anchor Manual of Needlework, Batsford Ltd., London, 1958 and reprinted in the U.S. by Interweave Press, Colorado, 1990]), illustrating the uniqueness of Italian embroideries and laces, under the heading of Casalguidi this event is remembered:

“Casalguidi, a small place near Pistoia, gives its name to this type of embroidery that, created by Camilla Amari, is worked in a special school by a training workforce. The embroidery of Casalguidi presents a unique and original contrast between the lightness of an openwork background and the heaviness of an embroidery of raised cords made with a special technique.”

(From the erroneous baptismal name we can trace the quotation to the small manual by Emilia Marini, Le glorie della spola e dell’ago in Italia [The glories of the shuttle and needle in Italy], ibid, Manualetto per i lavori donneschi [Manual for women’s work], R. Bemporad & Figlio, Editori, Florence, 1924.) [Translator’s note: Interesting to note that the English version of the Cucirini, et al. text does not mention the creator at all, mistaken name or otherwise!]

Therefore, it is in light of evidence that leads this embroidery back to Amari which raises the question of why Carolina may have made her creation available to the Morelli sisters. The only plausible hypothesis is that, moved by her extraordinary selflessness, she wished to give the women of those lands a unique tool with which they could improve their own living conditions. Unfortunately however, any trace of this has been obliterated by time or perhaps by certain situations, only the national and international notoriety of the embroidery called Casalguidi endures to this day.

The characteristic of this composite embroidery is given by the lightness of the background which can be drawn-thread or filet and by the almost sculptural relief effect that is made by motifs executed in the stitches: satin, stem, buttonhole, curl and Venetian. The representations recall geometric motifs, sticks inserted into or overlapped by shoots of flowers and leaves, bunches of grapes and by a characteristic six-petaled rosette, everything finished off by precious tassels made with the needle.

“These are real and proper pieces of art, the visual effect, both in terms of plasticity and decidedly iconographic, from up close very much recall 15th century sculptural and painted decorations.”

(Federica Mabellini, Dipinti ad Ago. L’arte del ricamo dalle origini al Punto Pistoia [Painted with the Needle. The art of embroidery from its origins to Pistoia Embroidery], Maria Pacini Fazzi Editore, Lucca, 1995).

And Mabellini also indicates in her essay a possible initial source of inspiration for that embroidery in what is called the Pope’s Chapel, located inside the Carabiniere station behind the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence:

“Here you can see the grotesques and the emblem of Pope Leo X which were painted by Rodolfo del Ghirlandaio and which are decorated by a series of painted frames. One of these in particular is made of elliptical motifs which surround six-petaled flowers and are interspersed equally with smaller ellipses in the middle of which are circles: the decoration decidedly recalls a few iconographic themes typical of Casalguidi embroidery.” 

But not only Florence, Pistoia also has sculptural decorations in the San Zeno Cathedral and the Baptistry, the jewels of the churches of Sant’Andrea, San Giovanni Fuorcivitas and San Piero Maggiore were all models for this embroidery.

The work made with this technique had considerable success in various exhibitions and Elisa Ricci, speaking about the works from the various cities of Italy sent to the World’s Fair in Milan in 1906, unfortunately destroyed, besides the well-known names, lists the “many remote villages with names then unknown to all (beautiful Italian names that our works now carry around the whole world!) Pescocostanzo, Anghiari, Pomponesco, Casamassella, Casalguidi,...”, towns which, according to Ricci, in their humility and obscurity all have “in the church or in the city hall or in the old walls, some noble trace in their past.” (Le industrie femminili italiane a Berlino [The Italian Feminine Industries in Berlin] in the magazine, Emporium, Istituto Italiano di arti grafiche, Bergamo, 1909, written under her penname, Aracne).

While Sofia Bisi Albini notes: “Florence sent Berlin Casalguidi embroideries in raised white on silk for ordinary applications and other originals, like those curious dish-covers for keeping off the flies.” (L’Esposizione di lavori popolari a Berlino e le Industrie Femminili Italiane [The Exposition of Popular Art in Berlin and the Italian Feminine Industries], in the magazine, Vita femminile italiana, 1909).

Or also Virginia Colucci, remembering the many works presented at the Exhibition of Feminine Art in Siena in 1912, regrets not being able to admire the important artifacts of the Casalguidi school but stresses that even modest essays submitted by the public would give an idea of “the originality, the freshness and elegance of those same works.” (Mostra D’arte femminile a Siena [Exhibition of Feminine Art in Siena], in the magazine Vita d’Arte, L. Lazzeri, Siena, 1912).

***

Thank you to Ivana for allowing me to translate this portion of her book.
Any errors in the translation are surely mine.

Italian Almanacs

Often when I'm researching online, I lose hours and hours just browsing documents. It's always interesting and once in a while I find things relating to what I was looking for in the first place. Most often though, I find things that take me on a completely different path.

I started out looking for something on the Universal Exposition of Turin in 1911 and ended up discovering that the Internet Archive has some scanned copies of old Italian Almanacs from the beginning of the 20th century.

These are fun to browse through for the photos and advertisements if you don't read any Italian. They are like mini-encyclopedias and re-caps of the news of the past year and the events for the next year.

Sometimes there are pages of summaries of other articles from previous issues which send you on your way to check out something you missed. Key words are: moda = fashion, lavori femminili = women's work, ricamo/i = embroidery/ies, trina/e or merletto/i or pizzo/i = laces.

In the 1914 Almanac, I came across this delightful Filet lace which is hard to tell if it was executed in the Darning Stitch or the Linen Stitch:

And this intriguing needle lace called Punto Sforza:

The accompanying article is brief and talks of the many different types of embroideries and laces and of the expositions of Siena, Turin and Paris. The author expresses a desire for more of such exhibitions in Italy "so that women can be encouraged to exercise their inventive faculties, and show what their intelligence is capable of producing."

With regard to Punto Sforza, it says that it is characterized by figures in lace stitches on a background of needle lace. It looks somehow familiar to me... like I've seen it somewhere else. Off I run to my library and in Lucia Petrali Castaldi's Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori Femminili it says:
 ... execution derived on a variation of the Milanese Lace... hmmm. Elisa Ricci's Trine a Fuselli doesn't seem to name it but there are some photos of exquisite pieces which seem to follow the criteria in the chapter on Milanese lace... yet, I know I've seen something very close to the photo from the Almanac somewhere...


Uh, oh... how did we get to "Milan" when I started out in "Turin"?
See how it happens? How easy it is to get distracted by beautiful things?!


Ah! Let me think about this Punto Sforza for a bit and let's see if something comes back to mind. In the meantime, have a browse through the old Almanacs for a bit of early 20th century Italy flavour.

Mezza Mandolina - Complex Netting

I received an intriguing email some weeks ago from Enza Termine of Sicily. You may remember her from a previous post on circular netting.

Enza had come across a web page by an SCA member who was investigating Mezza Mandolina, a more complex type of netting or Lacis evidenced in a portrait by Bronzino of Eleonora, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici and another portrait of Elizabeth I of England. Both portraits date to the mid-to-late sixteenth century.

This is a detail of the Bronzino portrait taken from Elisa Ricci's Old Italian Lace, 1913, the netting has been further embellished with embroidery:

Enza had also found this page with Mezza Mandolina tutorials by the same SCA member for different patterns that she had been able to figure out by experimentation.

Enza was curious about the name of the technique Mezza Mandolina. We found it mentioned by Elisa Ricci in her Old Italian Lace, 1913 (Antiche Trine Italiane. Trine ad ago - 1908):
"There is a variety of mesh-work very seldom found existing now, although several designs for its manufacture are to be seen in an old pattern-book, Isabella Parasole's Studio delle virtuose Donne published in 1597; the work was known as mezza mandolina, and is a net of irregular mesh, sometimes left plain, but more often embroidered with little leaves in matting-stitch which fill the square mesh and join it to the others so that the background can hardly be seen between the interwoven figures."

In the Ricci text is the above portrait of Eleonora which is preceded by a photo of a pattern page for Mezza Mandolina from a different text by Isabetta C. Parasole called Gemma Pretiosa, 1615. There is then a photo of some plain (not embroidered) extant Mezza Mandolina kept in the Bargagli collection in Florence. (You can download Old Italian Lace from here)

In my researching I found that all texts cite Parasole in one text or another of hers. Unfortunately extant Parasole texts are extremely rare and while out of copyright, are part of private and museum collections and are not yet in the public domain. The German version of a 1616 text can be found here but there are no patterns for Mezza Mandolina. One librarian at the Smithsonian Museum told me that they plan to scan their rare texts and put them online in the future, this is exciting as they have four Parasole texts in their collections.

The tiny text Origine ed uso delle Trine a Refe has a rather complex pattern for embroidering Mezza Mandolina from Parasole's Pretiosa gemma delle virtuose donne, reprinted by Luchino Gargano in Venice, 1600 - you can see it here. I'm not sure how you would manage something so complex on netting but then, I don't have any experience in doing it!

Enza decided to see if she could reproduce the Mezza Mandolina pattern from the Bronzino portrait. She had some good results which she shared with me but asked me to wait until she could perfect her technique and she has just sent me this photo of her results:

She has written of her adventures on her website (click on Mezza Mandolina - text in Italian) and she also found this extant example of Mezza Mandolina from the late 19th century in the National Museum of Abruzzo.

Does anyone know anything else about Mezza Mandolina? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks to Enza for sharing her photo and adventures with us!

To read a follow-up post for this subject, click here.

Feltria Ars

As I have mentioned before, in the later 19th and early 20th centuries there was an Arts and Crafts movement among the embroiderers and lacemakers of Italy. Many regions recovered lost needlework techniques or invented new ones and above all sought to provide a means of support for local women through the sale of their needlework.

Urbino was no exception and the association named Feltria Ars took inspiration from the local paintings, frescos and artwork to produce their unique needlework during this period.

Elisa Ricci in her book Ricami Italiani, Antichi e Moderni tells us:
"In Urbino a young lady of the aristocracy wanted to give work to the women of the area and gathered around her other ladies who helped voluntarily. The designs and inspirations for the new embroideries were taken from [the works of] Allegretto Nuzi, the brothers from San Severino and Antonio Alberti which offered thousands of little motifs, adorable for their freshness and grace, which adorned the clothing, drapery and halos of their saints."

Here are a few pictures:


Embroidered in turquoise silk thread on white cloth by Feltria Ars of Urbino. Motif taken from a painting by Allegretto Nuzi. You get the idea from a painting by the same artist at the National Gallery in the UK:


Feltria Ars of Urbino. Motif taken from a fresco by the brothers from San Severino:


You can see the pattern on the Madonna's robe (sorry I couldn't find a better pic):


Feltria Ars of Urbino. Motif taken from a painting by the master Antonio Alberti da Ferrara:


Again, just to give you an idea, here's a work by Antonio Alberti with motifs on the Madonna's robe (again, hard to see - click on the photos for a closer look):


The Feltria Ars association also "embroidered with coloured straw with which they made unique tassels" to quote Lucia Petrali Castaldi in her book Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavoro Femminili. She also writes that the most important artistic handiworks to come from Feltria Ars were their hand-stamped fabrics using stamps from the 15th and 16th centuries.

I am unable to find out anything further on Feltria Ars or who the "young lady of the aristocracy" was who started it all. If you know anything will you post a comment below?

La Sirena - The Siren

Besides monsters, I love finding Mermaids and/or Sirens in embroidery and lace. I can't tell you why and you could even say that the Siren is a type of sea monster.

From Giovanni Ostaus' La Vera Perfezione del Disegno per Punti e Ricami (1561):


They are always wicked in the old tales and it was probably not until Hans Christian Andersen that there was a sympathetic tale of these creatures - don't quote me, I'm not up on my Mermaid/Siren history. The Greeks didn't even associate them with the sea but the Romans did and since we're talking about Italy, let's go with the Romans! You do need to know however that Sirens get some bird-like history from the Greeks so sometimes they are depicted with wings. Enough background – on to the Sirens in needlework!

From Cesare Vecellio's Corona delle nobili e virtuose donne (1592):


Years ago when searching for Italian patterns, I came across the Coraggio Sampler by The Scarlet Letter. This sampler has all kinds of things I like including monsters and a Mermaid. I actually came across a sampler in an Italian museum with the Mermaid from this sampler on it but I didn't note it down and now I'd love to know where I saw it!! Anyone know? Please leave me a comment below!

I like the documentation that goes with the Coraggio Sampler, it has references to 16th century antique pattern books. I ordered it with all the silk threads and then decided to modify it with other antique Italian motifs I liked so it sits on the floor stand in my living room and once in awhile I sit and put in a few stitches on it. I'm afraid it has been sitting there for years.

There are several needle lace Sirens in Merletti e Ricami della Aemilia Ars (1929) including several on a round table centre on the cover which was a piece commissioned "from America", I tried to scan it but unfortunately I can't get a good scan, you'll have to take my word for it...

... there is also this Heraldic design by Arcangelo Passerotti from his Libro di Lavorieri (1591):


In the same book there is this one done in Filet lace for a tablecloth, the design is from Giovanandrea Vavassore's Esemplario di Lavori (c. 1530):


I have always liked the Siren in Elisa Ricci's Old Italian Lace (1913):


I took a crack a charting the design, what do you think? She's pretty scary!


You can download some of Elisa Ricci's books and some antique pattern books from the Online Digital Archive of Documents, or you can purchase a collection of 5 antique pattern books together in one volume from Italian Needlecrafts.

Italian Blackwork

In the Victoria & Albert Museum in London there is a 16th century Italian Blackwork sampler. This sampler fascinated American needlework teacher Dakota Rogers so much that she reproduced patterns from it to make an exquisite sampler of her own called Tiramisu.

This is my own stitched Tiramisu, I took the class from Dakota Rogers through the Embroiderers Guild of America in 2008:


La Muta by Raphael depicts some Italian Blackwork, check out the cuffs.

Here we see a late 16th century Italian man's shirt taken from At Home in Renaissance Italy, 2006:


In the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence there is a 17th century Italian sampler with Blackwork on it:


Elisa Ricci in her Ricami Italiani Antichi e Moderni, 1925 notes that Punto Scritto (Backstitch) in Italy is most often found in combination with some other embroidery technique like Satin Stitching or Cross Stitching such as the fretwork in Assisi Embroidery:


Lucia Petrali Castaldi in her Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori Femminili, 1941 lists Punto Scritto being interchangeable with Punto Volterrano [Volterra Stitch]. There are no examples pictured and no other information.

In the introduction of the 2007 book Volterrano 2006 by Antoinetta Monzo Menossi, Rosalba Niccoli talks about the difficulty she experienced in finding any trace of Punto Volterrano in Volterra, Italy. It seems there were two kinds of embroidery: the oldest being "il punto scritto volterra" [Volterra Backstitch], said to have been executed in gold thread though no proof or extant samples survive; and "il punto volterrano" [Volterra Stitch] created by a teacher named Emma Gazzarri from the Technical Institute in the mid 1900s. Antoinetta Monzo Menossi took all this information into account when creating patterns for the small volume of delightful designs (text in Italian).


Other Italian books on Blackwork are: Poesia di uno stile: Interpretazione Liberty by Manuela Alida D'Anna, 2009 (text in Italian, English and German) charming designs in Art Nouveau style with excellent technical execution instructions; L'Arte del Blackwork, 2007 and Idee in Blackwork, 2009 by Bruna Scagnetti & Gabriella Antoniazzi (text in Italian and English) of the association Il Friuli Ricama.

All books listed are available from Tombolo Disegni. Click on: Libri/Books, then Libri Ricamo, then Ricamo Italiani or Blackwork (different books are listed on different pages) – send an email request to order.

Thanks to Armida for the Palazzo Davanzati sampler photo!

Monsters

I don't know why, but I really like monsters in needlework. I look for them and delight in finding them often in Italian needlework.

From the cover of Il Lavoro a Fuselli by Amelia Brizzi Ramazzotti, 1917 (Bobbin Lace):


From the cover of Punto D'Assisi by Adele Della Porta, 1916:


Assisi embroidery patterns are full of monsters!

Here are some for Cutwork from Cucirini Cantoni Coats' Ricami ad Intaglio:


There are often monsters in antique Italian Filet work:


Above images from Elisa Ricci's Old Italian Lace, 1913.

Here are some Whitework monsters from Emporium, Vol. XLIII, Arte femminile all' "Umanitaria", Alfredo Melani 1916:


Even in old stamps for textiles as in this pear wood hand-carved stamp from the first part of the 20th century, part of a collection owned by Arnaldo Caprai:


I could go on and on (and probably will at some later date) but what I originally wanted to tell you about was Elena Rossi's new digital pattern book: Patterns of Mythical Creatures from Tuscan Churches.


In her travels, Elena photographed strange monsters from the façades San Michele in Lucca and San Damiano al Monte in Florence and then has created designs for embroidery or other crafts from them. In the book each pattern is accompanied by a picture of the façade that it comes from. Every pattern is presented facing both right and left for ease of reproduction.

10 different monsters means that you could do a monster sampler!

Savignano Braid Embroidery

Savignano sul Rubicone (until 1933 called Savignano della Romagna) is located near the north-eastern coastline of Italy, between Ravenna and Rimini. Savignano Braid Embroidery, which originates from this area, was once used to decorate cattle and oxen in local country expositions and fairs - kind of like county fairs as we know them.

Image from Peasant Art in Italy, The Studio Magazine, 1913:


Kind of like the fairs we know, but of course different. The cattle and oxen were paraded along the main routes of the town so the people could admire and appreciate them better. Animals for sale were also dressed to impress. The country folk made covers for their beasts' parade and decorated them with simple yet effective motifs on homespun cloth using cotton, linen, hemp or woolen threads.

In the early years of the 20th century when all over Italy school-workshops were springing up to offer women education and means to support themselves through needlework, Savignano was not excluded. Countess Maria Luisa Rasponi of Ravenna was responsible for the School of Savignano di Romagna where she revived this ancient technique and where reproductions of antique motifs (from antique covers that she was able to recover) were reproduced on tablecloths, bed covers, curtains and other household items.

Savignano Braid Embroidery entails applied braids and chains which form rustic patterns in traditional colours of blue, red and off-white. Simple or knotted fringes border the pieces or tassels adorn the corners. Suitable fabrics are hemp or linen.

As part of the Italian Feminine Industries exhibit at the 1906 World's Fair in Milan, Savignano Braid Embroidery was exhibited in a veranda suite (image taken from Elisa Ricci's article in Emporium, July 1907):


Elisa Ricci included this picture of an oxen cover made by the School of Savignano di Romagna in her article about the Italian Feminine Industries organization written for the magazine Emporium in July 1907:


...and this one in 1913 for her chapter on Women's Crafts in Peasant Art in Italy for The Studio magazine:


Savignano Braid Embroidery won several awards at various fairs and exhibitions of the period and enjoyed success until the death of the Countess Rasponi in 1919. It is occasionally mentioned in various magazines and exhibition reviews until the early 1940s.

In 2007, acting on information written in the early 20th century, a small group of Italian women went to visit the Romagna Ethnographic Museum of Forlì in the hopes of finding one of the antique oxen covers that the Countess Rasponi had recovered. The tale of their discovery and the history of Savignano Braid Embroidery along with the basic stitches and patterns can be found in the book: Ricami a Treccia di Savignano, 2007 by Bianca Rosa Bellomo, Cristina Notore and Paola Paglierani (text in Italian).

The TALEA Officina Tessile teaches Savignano Braid Embroidery, and as mentioned here previously, offers kits (though not yet for sale overseas). If you go through the Gallerie Foto on their website you will see many works of Savignano Braid Embroidery.

There is a short article (in Italian) with a picture here.

You can download a pdf file of Peasant Art in Italy here (Holme, Charles, The Studio, 1913).

Siena

Today is one of the two days in the year that Siena hosts the Palio, a 90 second horserace, held on July 2 and August 16 every year. The Contrada of the Selva won!!!


Siena is broken up into 17 Contradas or neighbourhoods. (See my other post for more) When I lived in Siena in 1998 and 1999, my apartment was in the Selva Contrada, my kitchen window faced into the Selva's headquarters and was right above the stall where they kept their horse in the days leading up to the Palio.

The Selva [Forest] is represented on their flag by a rhinoceros under an oak tree and their colours are green and orange. Picture above is an old postcard (1950s?) depicting the costume of the flag bearer [alfieri] and the flag of the Selva. All decoration on the costume would have been needlework and appliqué.

For some more textile-related fun, here is a stamped cotton gown in the Selva's colours (last photo) designed by Emilio Pucci for his 1957 Palio Collection. For this collection, he also created headscarves, men's shirts styled after the Palio jockey's shirts with matching pants, cocktail and formal gowns for women.

Every so often the costumes for the Contrada's Palio activities get redesigned. If you can make an appointment to view the museums of the Contradas (each one has it's own) some have various retired examples on display. Many costumes have silk and goldwork embroidery.

In 1904 Siena hosted the exposition Arte Antica Senese for which all Palio costumes were redesigned for the opening ceremonies inaugurated by the King and Queen of Italy on April 17th of 1904. That year there was an extra Palio race on that day to celebrate.

Here is a commemorative postcard with a depiction of another Contrada's (L'Oca - the Goose) alfiero:


The redesign of the costumes in 1904 was to reflect the Sienese Renaissance years (1450-1520) and was linked to the exhibition which covered Sienese Art between the years of 1250 and 1555.

There are photos of some lace works exhibited in Siena in 1904 in Elisa Ricci's book Old Italian Lace (1913) like this 16th century tablecloth:


Elisa Ricci wrote an article for the Italian art publication Emporium in August of 1904 on the fabrics and laces of the exposition in Siena. She wrote as only someone who was there could write, full of appreciation and wonder for the beautiful things she saw. She delights in listening to two scholars argue over the age of a particular piece; in the beauty of the works of devotion carefully preserved over centuries; in the luxury of the two-pile velvets and in the early examples of bobbin laces from Milan, Venice and Genoa.

Her particular favourite piece is a collar of needle lace with a musical theme which she speculates must have been destined for a great singer. The lower section is a kind of bas-relief of satyrs and monsters blowing trumpets. The design of this part is attributed to a 16th century artist (not named) and Elisa says that the excellence of execution by the lacemaker challenges the skill of a goldsmith or miniaturist. The middle section holds a row of dancing figures, each enclosed in an architectural niche and dressed in sumptuous Spanish-style dress. In the top points are musical instruments: harps, violas and trumpets in the guise of trophies. "And in the extraordinary minuteness and richness of design, not one line is misplaced, everything is clear, precise, fresh. What eyes, what a needle, what thread, what patience, what love there is in this small masterpiece that has deserved to traverse the centuries, intact in its extreme fragility!"

Click on the photo for a closer look:


I wonder where it is today?

Goldwork in Renaissance Italy

During the Renaissance, Florence took the lead in Or Nué, or shaded gold technique, producing works of metal thread embroidered art which rivaled paintings. Though the technique probably originated in Belgium, the Florentines took it to new heights of excellence and made it their own, creating the period known as Opus Florentinium. Executed on a heavy cotton or linen background fabric with silk threads, split stitches and satin stitches in innumerable colour shades and thread thicknesses were used to couch down rows of metal threads creating incredible three-dimensional scenes. To aid the 3-D effect, soft cotton threads were applied to the ground fabric and stitched over thus raising the gold and silver threads.

The most famous surviving examples of this technique are the embroideries of St. John the Baptist which are now preserved in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence. They are a series of 27 scenes of the life of St. John the Baptist which once decorated vestments worn by the priests of the Baptistry commissioned by the members of the Arte di Calimala.

I'm sorry my photo is not very clear, but here is one of the pieces:


Painter and Architect Giorgio Vasari mentions in his book “The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects” (first published in Florence in 1550) that the artists who designed for needlework had the ambition to produce embroideries which looked as much like paintings as possible.

In 1437 Cennino Cennini of Florence wrote out techniques for artists who were commissioned to design for embroidery (Il Libro dell'Arte). It was the artist, not the embroiderer, who drew out the designs on the ground fabric, and there were precise instructions for designs on linen and different ones for designs on velvet.

Goldwork embroidery on clothing and furnishings may not have been a luxury for the average citizen but nothing, not even Sumptuary Laws restricted the rich. In Old Italian Lace, Elisa Ricci quotes an inventory document which states: "In the wedding-trousseau of Elisabetta Gonzaga of Montefeltro (1488) the cushions were of crimson satin with a network of gold and silver, two shirts, one of cambric, the other of bombasine were worked with gold; the sheets were trimmed with gold and gold fringe." And again here she quotes inventory documentation of the wardrobe of Lucrezia Borgia, dated 1502: "minute descriptions are given one after another of embroideries for bed-furniture in silk and gold, velvet embossed with gold, and two cushions of green velvet with tassels and lace of gold."

The Church was often the commissioner of expensive needlework. A Renaissance period dalmatic, credited to the region of Umbria is preserved at the Orvieto Museo del Duomo. It is a rich red brocaded velvet which has the scenes of the “Adoration of the Magi”, the “Presentation in the Temple”, and the “Resurrection and Ascension” embroidered in gold and silk threads on it. It belongs to a set of another dalmatic and a chasuble, the designs of which are credited to either the artists Luca Signorelli, Sandro Botticelli or Raffaellino del Garbo.

Check out this Italian Corporal Cover at the Victoria & Albert museum.

While religious material provided endless subject matter for gold embroideries, hunting scenes were popular as well. The nuns of Florence were also doing commissions of embroideries at this time. Their skill was praised by the Bishop of Florence and by Fra Savonarola who then later in the century changed his mind and reproached the sisters for devoting their time to the "vain fabrication" of gold laces with which to adorn the houses and persons of the rich.

The 16th century was the height of decorative design and it is at this time that Italian styles and fashions had the greatest influence on Europe. During this period ancient Roman houses were being excavated and an interest in classical design began to be reflected in art. "Since the excavated houses of ancient Rome, by now buried under the detrius of years, emerged as caves, they became known as grottoes and their wall paintings were described as grotteschi, or grotesques. Essentially the style consisted of a light, cool balanced scheme of cartouches set in an airy framework of linear and floral decoration, which was whimsically or even ludicrously interspersed with imaginary beasts, mask and human or anthropoid figures" (Needlework, an Illustrated History, 1978). The artist Raphael is credited with developing this type of design work.

An example of Raphael grotesque design:


Around the same time, Islamic decoration was also used by Renaissance designers and these two design influences were combined to create the style of Renaissance artwork. Early Middle Eastern design inherited through Sicily and flower patterns were also incorporated. Classical acanthus leaves, arabesque scrolling or wave patterns sometimes combined with animal patterns were stylized to geometric ground-covering patterns.

Symbolism and double meaning was popular among the people of Italy in the 16th century and was often reflected in Goldwork embroidery along with heraldry, monograms and ciphers. These types of patterns were used for wall hangings, bed valences, covers for chests and tables, horse trappings and coverlets worked in gold threads usually on velvet or satin or in appliqué outlined with applied braids.

Catherine de’Medici of Florence was a great patron of embroidery and was a highly skilled embroideress herself, having learned the art while in the convents of Florence during her early childhood. It is said that Catherine took the most skilled of Italian embroidery craftsmen with her to the French Court and while there, spread Italian needlework techniques among the French. I love this quote from an essay in a 1930 issue of Antiques Digest: "Catherine de’Medici, always interesting and intriguing because of the times she reflected, presents a magnificent picture of the luxury of woe. On the death of Henri II she tore down the gorgeous brocades of the bed and replaced them with more of magnificence than even color could express. Into this bed they popped the widowed queen, and this is how it was draped. A canopy was over her head of black silk damask lined with white. From this depended a dossier which hung behind the bed’s head, also of black damask, but embroidered in silver. But the fine effect was given by the curtains long and full, all of black velvet. They were embroidered with gold and silver and finished across the hem with silver fringe. When they parted it was to reveal the queen lying under a coverlid of black velvet and black damask set off with flashes of silver and pearls. Who could doubt the sincerity of woe thus beautifully expressed? This style of bed was aptly called the lit de parade."

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a late 16th century, possibly Venetian, woman’s camicia with lavender silk and gold embroidery patterns. Unfortunately, their website does not have a photo of this piece and they have no record of who it belonged to.

Check out this amazing Italian christening blanket at the Victoria & Albert museum! Don't forget to click on the "More Information" tab to read all the information.

In another post we will explore Italian Goldwork in other time periods.

Different Styles of Reticello - Part Four

So let's look at those hugely ornate Reticello collars and cuffs of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

For those of you who may be joining us just now, we started this series on the Different Styles of Reticello here.

As Elisa Ricci says in her introduction to the 1909 reprint of Federico Vinciolo's Les Singuliers et Nouveaux Pourtraicts, "To judge by the number of times this little book by Vinciolo was reprinted between 1587 and 1658, one must believe that the refined and demanding ladies of the time considered it the best of its kind. There are some 17 editions that we know of – but there is reason to believe that there were more, since it is inconceivable that some fragment or recollection of every edition has come down to us, considering the manner in which ladies would use, or rather consume, such pattern books, ripping out the pages and distributing them to their embroiderers, as one does today with patterns found in fashion magazines."

It is amazing that we have traces of these pattern books, considering all the factors against their survival like fire, water, mice, wear and tear, mould, mildew – the ones to survive must have been jealously guarded indeed. There are some that still are... jealously guarded that is. Vari Disegni di Merletto by Bartolomeo Danieli and Libro di Lavorieri by Aurelio Passerotti are ones I'd love to see... I don't know if they contain patterns for Reticello or not.

There is quite an informative article in the back of the Italia Invita 2005 Forum Book by Marialuisa Rizzini on the various pattern books of the 16th century that cites some 156 editions which are known. I thought I had a list of them all at one point but I can't find it now, I will keep looking and post it when I find it.

From Les Singuliers et Nouveaux Pourtraicts by Federico Vinciolo:


Ornate collars and cuffs were the thing to be wearing. Here we have a detail of collar and cuff by Scipione Pulzone, late 1500s (click here for the whole picture):


Elisabetta Catanea Parasole Romana, 1616, Teatro delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne – numerous designs for "Reticella", this is only one page:


There were many other antique pattern books to draw from, and the best way to see the embroideries now is to check out portraits from the period.

From Old World Lace by Clara Blum:


From Old Italian Lace by Elisa Ricci:


There is a free downloadable German version of Elisabetta Catanea Parasole Romana's, Teatro delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne, under Parasole: Musterbuch für Stickereien und Spitzen at the Online Digital Archive. While there you can also download Old World Lace by Clara Blum, and Old Italian Lace by Elisa Ricci and even Federico Vinciolo's Les Singuliers et Nouveaux Pourtracits.

To purchase a reprint of five antique pattern books collected in one volume, check out Disegni per Merletti e Ricami.

Different Styles of Reticello - Part One
Different Styles of Reticello - Part Two
Different Styles of Reticello - Part Three