ENGLISH EMBROIDERY FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, ca. 1580-1700: ’TWIXT ART AND NATURE
December 11, 2008 to April 12, 2009
This exhibition was the third resulting from collaboration between the Bard Graduate Center (BGC) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). The Met’s collection of English embroidery hasn’t been exhibited since 1973 and so this was also the first exhibit to feature the donations (made in 1964) of Judge Irwin Untermyer from New York, a dedicated collector, who gave the museum over a hundred embroideries from this period.
I was interested to hear that prior to mounting the exhibition the Met held a series of courses for the graduate students involved in which they learnt all aspects of researching, planning, designing and installing exhibitions of decorative objects. The students also worked intimately on the objects considered for display and the research conducted was ultimately utilised in the exhibition catalogue, exhibition labels, and gallery guides. How I envied their opportunity of handling and researching these objects!
The Exhibition
Included approximately 80 objects (50 of which were from the Untermyer gift) from the Met’s collection and other objects from the museum, other institutions and private collectors. The exhibition covered 3 floors – each one dedicated to a different theme.
Placing the objects alongside contemporaneous prints, books, pattern books and decorative objects, combined with high quality photo reproductions meant that it was possible to place the embroideries in their historical context in a way that I haven’t seen before. It was clear that these objects had been made or commissioned by the English gentry for personal adornment and to decorate their homes and that they featured the religious ideas, education concepts and fashionable motifs of their time.
December 11, 2008 to April 12, 2009
This exhibition was the third resulting from collaboration between the Bard Graduate Center (BGC) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). The Met’s collection of English embroidery hasn’t been exhibited since 1973 and so this was also the first exhibit to feature the donations (made in 1964) of Judge Irwin Untermyer from New York, a dedicated collector, who gave the museum over a hundred embroideries from this period.
I was interested to hear that prior to mounting the exhibition the Met held a series of courses for the graduate students involved in which they learnt all aspects of researching, planning, designing and installing exhibitions of decorative objects. The students also worked intimately on the objects considered for display and the research conducted was ultimately utilised in the exhibition catalogue, exhibition labels, and gallery guides. How I envied their opportunity of handling and researching these objects!
The Exhibition
Included approximately 80 objects (50 of which were from the Untermyer gift) from the Met’s collection and other objects from the museum, other institutions and private collectors. The exhibition covered 3 floors – each one dedicated to a different theme.
Placing the objects alongside contemporaneous prints, books, pattern books and decorative objects, combined with high quality photo reproductions meant that it was possible to place the embroideries in their historical context in a way that I haven’t seen before. It was clear that these objects had been made or commissioned by the English gentry for personal adornment and to decorate their homes and that they featured the religious ideas, education concepts and fashionable motifs of their time.
It is amazing that embroidery flourished during this tumultuous period.
1649 King Charles I beheaded
1649 – 1660 Roundheads Rule under Cromwell
1660 Restoration of the Monarchy
1665 Black Death
1666 Great Fire of London
1689 Constitutional Monarchy established
As Roberta Smith comments in her New York Times article (link below) it is worth remembering that the labour was cheaper than the materials used.
First Floor – Royalty
Featured courtly ceremonial and domestic pieces that supported the idea of monarchy – a finely worked portrait miniature of Charles I looked like a painting it was so fine and may have been a secret piece stitched by a loyal follower of the cult of the Martyr King which developed after his execution. We saw a spectacular burse (purse) made to hold the Great Seal of England and a lavishly embroidered Bible cover and several other embroidered portraits including a unique Elizabethan portrait of a woman, possibly Queen Elizabeth herself.
Second Floor – Domestic Objects
One of the themes here was the role of embroidery in the education of girls and young women and featured several samplers typical of the period along with a rare dated workbag created and initialled by a ten year old in 1669, as well as pattern books from which designs were taken.
Objects made for domestic furnishings by both amateur and professionals were shown including wall hangings and stunning decorated caskets, mirror frames and cushions. An unfinished casket gave the opportunity to see how the design was drawn and laid out on the fabric.
Fashion accessories included caps, purses and five pairs of beautiful gloves as well as a rare embroidered jacket from about 1616. Having been able to stitch on the 17th Century Jacket project (started at Plimouth Plantation but now in the charge of Dr Tricia Wilson Nguyen of Thistle Threads) I was excited to be able to view another example ‘up close’. Tricia’s influence was also evident in the stunning video and special animations showing how the gold work on the jacket would have been stitched and how much gold thread would have been used – the stitch chosen was certainly not economical! ‘Forensic’ examination of a now threadbare blackwork Coif and its digital recreation into a full colour stitched piece was just outstanding and like something you see on TV programmes like CSI!
Third Floor – The Bible and Nature
Two of the most popular themes of the period were stories drawn from the Bible and the depiction of nature. The Bible was central to domestic life and its heroines were used as models of virtuous behaviour particularly in the education of young women. We saw embroidered Bible covers and wonderful panels which you will also be able to view if you visit the Sunday Arts TV spot link below.
The Catalogue
I can’t recommend the exhibition catalogue enough. Published and distributed by Yale University Press, it was edited by co-curators Melinda Watt and Andrew Morrall and contains a complete catalogue of the objects in the exhibition as well as six essays. It is the most extensive examination of embroidery from this period ever published in the United States. In addition to the curators, contributors include Kathleen Staples, author of British Embroidery: Curious Works from the Seventeenth Century (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,1998), whose essay addresses the production and usage of embroidered furnishings; Susan North, curator of 17th and 18th century dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), who has written an essay on fashion accessories; Ruth Geuter, a leading expert on pictorial embroideries, who offers an essay on the social dimensions of the embroidered biblical narratives; and Cristina Carr, associate conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, who presents an illustrated technical dictionary of materials unique to these objects . The catalogue is available in the UK from Yale Books UK at the link below or from Amazon. Yale Books
Links
Exhibition Website with some images
Bard’s object of the Month
New York Times Article
Sunday Arts TV Spot – this is like having your own guided tour!
Thistle Threads Blog on the ‘Jacket Project’
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