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Panel

Unknownearly 17th century

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States

Pictorial embroidery in high relief with elaborate framing device. The center oval is almost filled by an oak tree, its leaves worked in detatched needle lace stitches in shades of green, its trunk and branches in silver, now tarnished. At its base is a salamander, worked in silver, now tarnished. The background shows a landscape worked in pale silks with mountains and buildings, possibly a monastery. From the limbs of the tree hang crutches, a wax leg, and a bag (?). The meaning of the two crutches and the wax leg are as yet undetermined, but in association with the salamander, possibly signify healing or rejuvenation. The whole is surrounded by a wide frame with vines in high relief; in the four corners are coiled serpents. Accented with coral beads.The background landscape is embroidered with silk using encroaching statin stitch and couching. The areas of high relief are produced by padded couching and the small shrubs by bullion stitch using a metallic yarn. Couched yarns: silk wrapped with wire, silk wrapped with narrow strips of flat metal, silk wrapped with narrow strips of flat metal and again with wire, heavy cords wrapped with wide strips of metal, coils of flat strips of metal wound with silk and narrow strips of flat metal, cord wrapped with plied metal-wrapped silk and narrow strips of metal. Coils of wire, coils of narrow flat strips of metal and coral beads attached.

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  • Title: Panel
  • Creator: Unknown
  • Date Created: early 17th century
  • Physical Dimensions: w280 x d330 cm
  • Type: Panel
  • Rights: Gift of Marian Hague
  • Medium: Medium: silk, metal wire, metal strips, coral beads Technique: raised embroidery
  • Dimensions: H x W: 33 x 28 cm (13 x 11 in.)
  • Bibliography: Reproduced: C.U.M., "Recent acquisitions by the Cooper Union Museum, a book in picture in honor of Calvin S. Hathaway," New York, 1964, Page 16.References: De Farcy, pl. 225, text p.159; Louis de Farcy, La Broderie du XI siecle jusqu'à nos jours d'après des spècimens authentiques et les anciens inventaires, Angers, Belhomme 1890- 1900 - 2 vols (58 cm)Seligman and Hughes, pl 74.Illus.: Embroidery: the Journal of the Embroider's Guild, vol. XI, No 2 Summer 1960, "The Embroidery Collection of the C.U.M. for the Arts of Decoration, N.Y.", by Alice Baldwin Beer, fig.33.Reproduced: The Art Quarterly, vol. 23, no.3, Autumn, 1960, p. 304.Lynes, Russell. More than Meets the Eye. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981, p. 81.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

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