Vol. 160 / No. 1380
Vol. 160 / No. 1380
The exhibition Textiles and Wealth in 14th-Century Florence:
Wool, Silk, Painting at the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence (to 18th March),
presents Florence not only as a major artistic centre but also as a centre of commerce.
In a display of textiles, ceramics, metal-work, documents and paintings, it explores
the wealth created in fourteenth-century Florence through the manufacture of and
trade in wool and silk textiles. The mercantile fortunes produced at this time
would ultimately underpin the artistic and intellectual flowering of the Florentine
Renaissance.
By 1300 Florence had a long-established wool industry and in
the first room its powerful guild, the Arte della Lana, is represented by a
beautifully illuminated page from its statutes (1333–37; Archivio di Stato di Firenze,
Florence; cat. no.10). During the fourteenth century people in Florence were
predominantly clothed in wool, yet examples of dress from the period are so
rare that a child’s dress from Greenland is exhibited (National Museum of
Denmark, Copenhagen; no.5). In addition, there is a fragment of Florentine wool
from a S. Umiltà’s nun’s habit woven in a mixture of undyed yarns in different
tones, called mischiati or mescolati, corresponding to the English term
‘medley’ (c.1300; Vallombrosa Abbey; no.6). Three documents from the archive of
Francesco di Marco Datini in Prato display wool samples that illuminate the
meaning of historic colour terms, such as paonazzo (literally ‘peacock’ – a
shade of purple), rosa secca (‘dry rose’) and sanbucato (green). The catalogue
offers useful information about how these colours were achieved.
In contrast to the few, plain woollen fragments on display,
there is a wealth of beautiful figured silks, arranged chronologically from the
late thirteenth to the early fifteenth century, ending with a room of velvets. This
is a rare opportunity to see this material, because silk is so sensitive to
light (being both prone to fading and perishable) that museums seldom exhibit
many examples together. Unlike its entrenched woollen industry, silk
manufacture was just on the threshold of developing into an important commercial
enterprise in Florence around 1300. During the fourteenth century, most of the
silks worn or traded in Florence were either ‘Tartar’ silks from the Mongol
empire or were made in Lucca or Venice, and none of the silks exhibited are
specifically ascribed to Florence.
Among several examples of ‘Tartar’ silks in the exhibition,
there is a fragment from the tomb of Cangrande della Scala (d.1329) in Verona
(c.1300; Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona; no.26), the famous cloth of gold pourpoint
(quilted doublet) of Charles de Blois (d.1364) from the Musée des Tissus, Lyon
(no.47; Fig.4) and a glorious early fourteenth- century ecclesiastical vestment
from St Nicholas’s Church in Stralsund (Stralsund Museum; no.28). The major
impact of these oriental silks on contemporary Italian silk weaving is
represented through examples of Italian samite and lampas silks woven with palmettes,
dragons and other exotic subjects, together with a fragmentary drawing of
orientalising silk motifs from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (no.29).
Velvet was another ‘Tartar’ import. It reached Italy in the late thirteenth
century and is represented by a complete loom width of crimson velvet with gold
discs, probably woven in Iran in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth
century (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; no.61). In Italy, velvet
weaving probably began in Lucca around 1300, and this early production is
exemplified by a group of fourteenth-century chequered velvets (Deutsches
Textilmuseum, Krefeld; no.60). A key document from the Datini archive (Archivio
di Stato di Prato; no.63), juxtaposing descriptions of velvets with sketches of
their designs, attests to the high standard achieved by Florentine velvet
weavers in the early fifteenth century, and several examples of late fourteenth
and early fifteenth-century velvets are shown (no.65; Fig.5).
The organisers have pulled off the difficult feat of
exhibiting well-lit paintings alongside textiles that require a lower level of
light. Attractive line drawings of enlarged textile designs decorating the
walls behind the cases help the viewer to decipher some of the less well-preserved
examples. Charles de Blois’s pourpoint is particularly well displayed in a free-standing
case permitting close inspection, not only of the cloth of gold but also of its
complex tailoring. Due to a lack of surviving examples, apart from the
pourpoint, silk clothing is mainly represented in the exhibition by means of
documents. The Theatrum Sanitatis by a follower of Giovannino de’ Grassi
(c.1400; Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome; no.46), for example, offers
illustrations of silk clothing prepared in tailors’ shops. Wearing silk
clothing was restricted by sumptuary legislation, but a register of forbidden
clothing known as the Prammatica delle vesti (1343–45; Archivio di Stato di Firenze;
no.50) offers detailed descriptions of a succession of costly silk outfits
whose owners had to pay a fine for the privilege of wearing them. There is also
a witty video presentation, voiced over with an ironic commentary about the
Florentine taste for extravagant dress, in the words of a notary who compiled
the Prammatica. The laity often attempted to offset their extravagance by giving
or bequeathing their clothing as pious offerings to the church. A second
vestment from Stralsund, composed of several different Italian silks woven with
gold and silver thread, is thought to be made up from just such offerings
(c.1400; no.51).
The paintings by artists such as Lorenzo di Bicci, Angelo
Puccinelli, Gherardo Starnina and Jacopo di Cione – several of which are drawn
from the Accademia’s own collection – demonstrate their response to the
beautiful silks of their day. Cione’s large altarpiece of the Coronation of the
Virgin offers a sumptuous vision of heaven adorned with colourful silks brocaded
with exotic, orientalising designs, while its predella shows heraldic shields,
thus representing a combination of ecclesiastical, political and commercial
interests (no.44; Fig.6). Looking at this imposing painting, it is worth
remembering that Datini regarded smaller, easily transportable religious works by
artists such as Cione as useful commodities, which he traded alongside textiles
and other items.
One major shortcoming is the absence of embroidery. This is
surprising because superb examples were produced in Florence during the
fourteenth century and exported by the ubiquitous Datini and others to the papal
court at Avignon and the royal courts of France and Burgundy. Ironically, one of
the most intriguing documents exhibited (1341–49; Archivio di Stato di Firenze;
no.13) concerns a commission given by two silk merchants in 1342 to an
embroiderer, Jacopo di Cambio, for a cope with scenes from Christ’s life and
prophets. Coincidentally, the Accademia contains an important work by the same
Jacopo, a magnificent altar frontal from S. Maria Novella embroidered with the
Coronation of the Virgin with Saints, signed ‘Jacopo Cambi’ in 1336. Unlike all
the other textiles in the exhibition, this embroidery is ‘certified’ as
Florentine, and through its figurative design in silk, it provides a tangible link
between the pictorial and textile arts. It may have been considered impractical
to move this large textile, which is already well displayed on the first floor,
down into the exhibition, but it is a pity that its existence is neither
pointed out in the exhibition nor mentioned in the catalogue.
Enjoyment of the exhibition is undoubtedly enhanced by the
beautifully illustrated catalogue, with an introduction by Cecilie Hollberg.1
The informative individual entries are accompanied by eight wide-ranging essays.
These cover topics such as the Mediterranean silk trade; the Florentine economy
and its manufacture of silk and wool; garments made of silk; and the
representation of silk in Florentine paintings. Some of the undoubted
scholarship is, unfortunately, undermined by the uneven quality of the English
translation. There are few factual errors, although English readers might be surprised
to read the assertion that Charles VI of France − rather than Richard II − is portrayed
in the Wilton Diptych (p.252).
Despite these reservations, this is an altogether unmissable
exhibition, distinguished by its lucid presentation of a complex theme, enriched
with a display of rare treasures.
1 Catalogue: Textiles and Wealth in 14th-Century Florence:
Wool, Silk, Painting. Edited by Cecilie Hollberg, with contributions by David
Jacoby, Sergio Tognetti, Franco Franceschi, Maria Ludovica Rosati, Roberta Orsi
Landini and Juliane von Fircks. 288 pp. incl. numerous col. ills. (Giunti,
Florence and Milan, 2017), €44. ISBN 978–88–09–86515–0.