Extensively illustrated, this is the first accessible publication on the history of tapestry in over two decades. Woven with dazzling images from history, mythology and the natural world, and breath-taking in their craftsmanship, tapestries were among the most valuable and high-status works of art available in Europe from the medieval period to the end of the eighteenth century. Over 600 historic examples hang in National Trust properties in England and Wales - the largest collection in the UK. This beautifully illustrated study by tapestry expert Helen Wyld, in association with the National Trust, offers new insights into these works, from the complex themes embedded in their imagery, to long-forgotten practices of sacred significance and ritual use. The range of historical, mythological and pastoral themes that recur across the centuries is explored, while the importance of the 'revival' of tapestry from the late nineteenth century is considered in detail for the first time. Although focussed on the National Trust's collection, this book offers a fresh perspective on the history of tapestry across Europe. Both the tapestry specialist and the keen art-history enthusiast can find a wealth of information here about woven wall hangings and furnishings, including methods of production, purchase and distribution, evolving techniques and technologies, the changing trends of subject matter across time, and how tapestries have been collected, used and displayed in British country houses across the centuries.

Some Kind of Duty features all new handmade weavings by Chicago-based artist Karolina Gnatowski, known as kg. In monumental and small-scale tapestries, kg, anAmerican artist who was born in Poland incorporates references ranging from Polish immigration, badminton, Jim Morrison, and feminist fiber artists to addiction, mourning, and their pet. The artist's keen attention to the details of life's coincidences and moments of intersection finds a fitting form in their reverence for the history of tapestry weaving, and the evidence of everyday life incorporated into the artist's work makes their weavings an offering to those both living and dead. This catalog accompanies an exhibition at the DePaul Art Museum, and it features full-color plates of the works on view, an interview between the artist and DPAM Director and Chief Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm, an essay by K. L. H. Wells, assistant professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and poems written by the artist to accompany each work.

Never before has there been a book for modern quilters celebrating the rich patterns and colours of the American Southwest. These 15 quilt patterns and three smaller projects are a graphic interpretation of all that this rich landscape provides. The simple piecing featuring a balanced use of negative space is designed to appeal to beginners and experienced quilters alike. Author Kristi Schroeder celebrates five separate regions, one in each chapter. Each quilt is photographed on location with an accompanying colour story to support the design. Included is a list of the author's favourite places to shop, eat and play in each location. 

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. Ashmolean Museum: Chinese Embroidered Hanging with Peacock. The peacock was emblematic not of glory but of compassion and care, and so it would appear to be in this intricate hanging. What we might expect to be its show-stealing splendour is almost upstaged by the pure-white peonies, lilies and roses all around. The eyes of its furled-up tail, though beautiful, blend into the background as though they were another flower.

This book aims to make sense of the Bayeux Tapestry by bringing together answers to a number of questions which this famous hanging presents to the viewer. How did the embroiderers organise the stitching of the Bayeux Tapestry? Are its limited colours used with greater sophistication than viewers have recognised? What do we know of the Tapestry's supporting cast: naked figures in the margins and clerics present at events in the main register? Can we learn anything about the original purpose of the Tapestry from detailed examination of Bayeux Cathedral's 1476 Inventory, the first known reference to the Tapestry's existence? This book combines up-to-the-minute research with an introduction that draws on the contributors' personal observations in order to interrogate the Tapestry's enduring value. Bringing together contributions from leading specialists and newer voices in the field, it will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Bayeux Tapestry, medieval art and culture. -- .

Connecting us to the wide variety of contemporary fiber art in wall-mounted format, this resource combines more than 600 photos with personal comments from 100 of today's established and emerging artists. In conjunction with the other two books in this acclaimed series, it invites readers to re-examine fiber art through a multifaceted contemporary lens. The creators here are pushing the boundaries of what wall-mounted fiber art is, using fibers of paper, metal, fiberglass, milkweed seeds, or high-tech polymers. Bhakti Ziek's computerized loom work and Sue Benner's textile-collage quilts are but a few of the examples of how artists expertly combine different fiber techniques in a single piece, go beyond the technical processes, and cross-pollinate mediums.

Quilts and Human Rights offers a new understanding of the history of global human rights as seen through textiles of awareness and activism. Of all the textile forms linked to human rights activities, one form—the quilt—has proved an especially potent and popular form for individuals, working alone or as part of organized groups, to subversively or overtly act for human rights. Through a description of this activity over time and space, Quilts and Human Rights advances awareness of critical human rights issues: suffrage, race relations, civil wars, natural disasters, HIV/AIDs, and ethnic, sexual, and gender discrimination. Quilts and Human Rights pays tribute to the individuals who have used needle skills to prick the conscience and encourage action against human rights violations.    

The brainchild of bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith, historian Alistair Moffat and artist Andrew Crummy, the Great Tapestry of Scotland is an outstanding celebration of thousands of years of Scottish history and achievement, from the end of the last Ice Age to Dolly the Sheep and Andy Murray's Wimbledon victory in 2013. This book tells the story of this unique undertaking from its original conception and creation by teams of dedicated stitchers to its grand unveiling at the Scottish Parliament in 2013, its subsequent touring and the creation of its permanent home in the Scottish Borders.

Faith, family, hard work, and second chances are at the core of every great American story, and Jenny Doan's story is just that. In her new memoir, How to Stitch an American Dream, readers will discover the behind-the-scenes success story of the Missouri Star Quilt Company and Jenny's remarkable journey to overcome hardship, claim the abundance of family, and ignite the power of giving-all while revitalizing a small town along the way. Over the last decade, the Doan family business, the Missouri Star Quilt Company in tiny Hamilton, Missouri, has grown from Jenny's corner shop--with one quilting machine and two bolts of fabric for sale in the back--to become the largest supplier of pre-cut quilting fabric in the headquarters of Jenny's world-famous YouTube tutorial videos. Jenny is now giving her fans, the business world, and moms of all ages (and grandmas too!) what they've been asking for: the full story of her journey, from her humble beginnings as a homeschooling mom, to founding MSQC in her fifties, through the remarkable success and inspiration she's so well-known for today. In this book, you'll learn: How she and her beloved husband, Ron, raised seven children on a shoestring budget- and had fun doing it; How, after a string of bad luck, the family made a prayer-based decision to leave California behind and start over again in rural Missouri, even though they had no place to live, no jobs lined up, and no idea how they were going to make it; How Jenny, Ron and their children worked side-by-side to patch together a family home out of a crumbling shell of a farmhouse; And how their faith, hard work, and generosity not only carried them through the hard times, but led directly to the success of the Missouri Star Quilt Company. How to Stitch an American Dream will make you laugh, cry, say "bless your heart."

Luxurious, beautiful, and portable, tapestry was the pre-eminent art form of the Tudor court. Henry VIII amassed an unrivaled collection over the course of his reign, and the author weaves the history of this magnificent collection into the life of its owner with an engaging narrative style. Now largely dispersed or destroyed, Henry's extensive inventory is here reassembled and reveals how, through tapestry, Henry identified himself with historic, religious, and mythological figures, putting England in dialogue-and competition-with the leading courts of Early Modern Europe while promoting his own religious and political agendas at home. Campbell's original account sheds new light on Tudor political and artistic culture and the court's response to Renaissance aesthetic ideals. Sumptuously illustrated with newly commissioned photographs, this stunning re-creation of Europe's greatest tapestry collection challenges the predominantly text-driven histories of the period and offers a fascinating new perspective on the life of Henry VIII. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Part of a comprehensive catalog of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum collection, American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1760-1870 highlights the dazzling designs and intricate needlework of America's treasured material culture. From whole cloth to pieced quilts to elaborate applique examples, all reflecting various design movements such as Neoclassicism and Eastern exoticism, the contributing authors address the development of quilt making in America from its inception in the 1700s to the period of the U.S. Civil War. Covering more than one hundred years of quilt making, this volume examines the period's quilts from both an artistic and a historical perspective. The contributors provide critical information regarding the founding of the republic and the influential republican values and ideals manifested in the quilts of this era. They also address the role that immigration and industrialization played in the evolution of materials and styles. With full-color photographs of nearly six hundred quilts, American Quilts in the Industrial Age, 1760-1870 offers new insights into American society.

Telling a story of class and taste, aspiration and identity, tapestry series 'The Vanity of Small Differences' saw Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry travel the length and breadth of the UK, "on safari amongst the taste tribes of Britain". The result is a monumental exploration of the "emotional investment we make in the things we choose to live with, wear, eat, read or drive." The six vibrant and highly detailed tapestries presented here bear the influence both of early Renaissance painting and of William Hogarth's moralising series, literally weaving characters, incidents and objects from the artist's research into a modern-day version of 'A Rake's Progress' (1733). Featuring essays by journalist Suzanne Moore ('Guardian', 'The Mail') and Grayson Perry, alongside extensive commentary on each of the tapestries and their making, this book is an essential companion to one of the key contemporary art works of the last decade.

Tapestries have been an enigmatic form of artwork for hundreds of years, with the intricate symbolism of their woven narratives still fascinating viewers today. Unicorns and fantastic beasts rub shoulders with well-heeled aristocrats; famous biblical and saintly stories are played out; allegorical figures, gods and goddesses recline in classical landscapes; and the arms and military achievements of wealthy patrons are depicted in sparkling glory. However, far from being an outdated craft, tapestries continue to be woven to this day, both by talented amateurs in their homes and by highly skilled artisans in studios and workshops around the world. In this beautiful illustrated introduction to the history of tapestries, Rosita Sheen reveals the fascinating story of these masterpieces, exploring their conception, manufacture, and symbolism right up to the present day.

French Tapestries and Textiles is a survey of the Getty Museum's seventeenth-and eighteenth-century French textiles-one of the world's finest collections. Featuring twenty-five extraordinary tapestries woven at the Gobelins and Beauvais manufactories, the catalogue also highlights three carpets, two knotted-pile screens, and two sets of embroidered bed hangings, one of which is the only complete lit a la duchesse surviving from the period. Among the magnificent textiles discussed in this lavish volume are the Emperor of China tapestry series, the whimsical Story of Don Quixote, and Boucher's cycle The Story of Psyche. A gatefold in the book opens to reveal a photograph of the stately twenty-nine-foot carpet commissioned for Louis XIV's Galerie du Bord de l'Eau at the Louvre, a piece not publicly displayed for more than 120 years. Each entry includes a listing of artists and weavers, date and place of manufacture, and materials and techniques used, followed by a complete description and a condition statement. The accompanying commentary provides information on the literary, historical, and visual source of design imagery as well as the context of the textile's commission and production. In addition, each textile shown has a complete provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. For lovers of French decorative arts and connoisseurs of textiles, this book offers a study both of the art of tapestry- and textile-making and of the aesthetic tradition exemplified by these remarkable objects.

This collection explores how the body became a touchstone for late antique religious practice and imagination. When we read the stories and testimonies of late ancient Christians, what different types of bodies stand before us? How do we understand the range of bodily experiences-solitary and social, private and public-that clothed ancient Christians? How can bodily experience help us explore matters of gender, religious identity, class, and ethnicity? The Garb of Being investigates these questions through stories from the Eastern Christian world of antiquity: monks and martyrs, families and congregations, and textual bodies. Contributors include S. Abrams Rebillard, T. Arentzen, S. P. Brock, R. S. Falcasantos , C. M. Furey, S. H. Griffith, R. Krawiec, B. McNary-Zak, J.-N. Mellon Saint-Laurent, C. T. Schroeder, A. P. Urbano, F. M. Young

Embroidered in 1885-1886, Reading's version of the famous Bayeux Tapestry is a faithful, full-length replica of the original except in a few beguiling details. True to the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, its Victorian makers in the Leek Embroidery Society, matched their materials, colours and techniques to those of the eleventh century nuns thought to have created the original. The result is an extraordinarily vibrant reproduction, important in its own right and on permanent display in a purpose-built gallery in Reading Museum. Scene-by-scene, read through the story of the succession to the English throne by first Harold and then William the Conqueror. Find out why the Duke of Normandy had a claim to be King of England and what the original purpose of the tapestry may have been. Discover how Victorian society's values affected the replica and how it came to reside in Reading, so fittingly close to the ruins of the Abbey built by William's youngest son, Henry I.

New approaches to what is arguably the most famous artefact from the Middle Ages. In the past two decades, scholarly assessment of the Bayeux Tapestry has moved beyond studies of its sources and analogues, dating, origin and purpose, and site of display. This volume demonstrates the value of more recent interpretive approaches to this famous and iconic artefact, by examining the textile's materiality, visuality, reception and historiography, and its constructions of gender, territory and cultural memory. The essays it contains frame discussions vital to the future of Tapestry scholarship and are complemented by a bibliography covering three centuries of critical writings. Contributors: Valerie Allen, Richard Brilliant, Shirley Ann Brown, Elizabeth Carson Pastan, Madeline H. Cavines, Martin K. Foys, Michael John Lewis, Karen Eileen Overbey, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Dan Terkla, Stephen D. White.

In this study, Suzanne Lewis argues that the Bayeux Tapestry is one of the first large-scale visual narratives of the Middle Ages that, moreover, conveys medieval conceptions regarding the pictorialized text. More than a reinterpretation of the historical evidence related to the Tapestry, Lewis' study explores the visual and textual strategies and conventions that have made this work such a powerful statement for audiences over the centuries.

Gloria F. Ross (1923-1998) described her work as the translation of paint into wool. She was deeply committed to reinventing the centuries-old art of tapestry, particularly championing the handmade in contemporary art. This remarkable book, written by textile scholar Ann Lane Hedlund, draws from rare unpublished archives to unravel the evolution of Ross's modern tapestries and to illuminate the significance of her creative partnerships. Gloria F. Ross and Modern Tapestry features the collaborative work of 28 acclaimed modernist painters and sculptors, including Helen Frankenthaler (Ross's sister), Kenneth Noland, and Louise Nevelson, with several dozen traditional-yet-innovative weavers in France, Scotland, and the Southwestern United States. Brief biographies of the artists, letters, notes, sketches, and photographs illustrate the practical and aesthetic challenges that occupied Gloria Ross for over three decades. Distributed for the University of Arizona Foundation

Tearing, cutting, shredding in order to reassemble the elements and create something new: strip by strip the Austrian artist Monika Fioreschy applies lengths of torn paper to her canvases, thereby creating large-format abstract works filled with a harmonious formal language and offering an unexpected wealth of detail when observed more closely. Paper is the main medium used in the new cycles of works by Monika Fioreschy, whereby the strength of her works lies in the reduction of materials and forms. Line by line our eyes follow the course of the collages; the observer is seduced into reading her art. The strict regularity of the works is interrupted by changes in colour, the arrangement of the folds, gaps and overpasting, whereby the real wealth of detail only becomes evident through intensive study. In his essay accompanying the full-page reproductions of the works, art theorist Bazon Brock explains how Fioreschy's training in classic weaving skills can be rediscovered in these works and the role they play in the artist's oeuvre as a whole.

In 726 the Byzantine emperor, Leo III, issued an edict that all religious images in the empire were to be destroyed, a directive that was later endorsed by a synod of the Church in 753 under his son, Constantine V. If the policy of Iconoclasm had succeeded, the entire history of Christian art--and of the Christian church, at least in the East--would have been altered.

Iconoclasm was defeated--by Byzantine politics, by popular revolts, by monastic piety, and, most fundamentally of all, by theology, just as it had been theology that the opponents of images had used to justify their actions. Analyzing an intriguing chapter in the history of ideas, the renowned scholar Jaroslav Pelikan shows how a faith that began by attacking the worship of images ended first in permitting and then in commanding it.

Pelikan charts the theological defense of icons during the Iconoclastic controversies of the eighth and ninth centuries, whose high point came in A.D. 787, when the Second Council of Nicaea restored the cult of images in the church. He demonstrates how the dogmas of the Trinity and the Incarnation eventually provided the basic rationale for images: because the invisible God had become human and therefore personally visible in Jesus Christ, it became permissible to make images of that Image. And because not only the human nature of Christ, but that of his Mother had been transformed by the Incarnation, she, too, could be "iconized," together with all the other saints and angels.

The iconographic "text" of the book is provided by one of the very few surviving icons from the period before Iconoclasm, the Egyptian tapestry Icon of the Virgin now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Other icons serve to illustrate the theological argument, just as the theological argument serves to explain the icons.

In a new foreword, Judith Herrin discusses the enduring importance of the book, provides a brief biography of Pelikan, and discusses how later scholars have built on his work.

Around 1515, Raphael (1483-1520) designed a set of tapestries for Leo X, the first Medici pope. Each was sumptuously woven in gold, silver, and silk, and depicted scenes from classical mythology with inventive grotesques. Now lost, these spectacular, grand-scale textiles are reconstructed in Raphael's Tapestries and set among a series of unprecedented decorative projects that Pope Leo commissioned from the artist. Likely produced by the Brussels weaver Pieter van Aelst, the tapestries pioneered a new all'antica style analogous with contemporary painted and sculpted interior programs. Tapestries played a central role at Leo's court, as spectacle and as propaganda, and the Grotesques of Leo X would inform tapestry design for the next three centuries. Their beauty and complexity rivaled those of contemporary painting, and their luxurious materials made them highly prized. With this new study, the Grotesques take their rightful place as Renaissance masterworks and as documents of the fervent humanist culture of early 16th-century Rome.

"I have been weaving tapestries for more than half a century. It is as much a part of my everyday as eating, sleeping-or dreaming. It is an utterly ordinary activity for me." One of the world's most influential tapestry weavers, renowned for bringing "pop" into the ancient art of tapestry, Archie Brennan (1931-2019) had an exceptionally long career. Beginning in the mid-1940s and continuing into the first two decades of the 21st century, he pushed the boundaries of the medium, he developed a unique approach to weaving and tapestry design, and he influenced many people with his teaching style and outsized personality. This memoir, compiled with the assistance of weaver and former Wednesday Group member Brenda Osborn, provides the opportunity to pass his insights and his creative voice to a new generation of weavers. Let his incomparable voice explain why a dedication to weaving is worthwhile.

The whimsical imagery of four tapestries in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and currently on display at the Getty Center is perplexing. Created in France at the Beauvais manufactory between 1690 and 1730, these charming hangings, unlike most French tapestries of the period, appear to be purely decorative, with no narrative thread, no theological moral, and no allegorical symbolism. They belong to a series called the Grotesques, inspired by ancient frescos discovered during the excavation of the Roman emperor Nero's Domus Aurea, or Golden House, but the origins of their mysterious subject matter have long eluded art historians. Based on seven years of research, Conundrum: Puzzles in the Grotesques Tapestry Series reveals for the first time that the artist responsible for these designs, Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699), actually incorporated dozens of motifs and vignettes from a surprising range of sources: antique statuary, Renaissance prints, Mannerist tapestry, and Baroque art, as well as contemporary seventeenth century urban festivals, court spectacle, and theater. Conundrum illustrates the most interesting of these sources alongside full-color details and overall views of the four tapestries. The book's informative and engaging essay identifies and decodes the tapestries' intriguing visual puzzles, enlightening our understanding and appreciation of the series' unexpectedly rich intellectual underpinnings.

A high-energy mix for all who make and appreciate contemporary art quilts. With more than 650 photos, enjoy this journey through the art quilt collections that are held in five different museums across the United States. Each has a different focus, and each has different treasures to learn about: the Museum of Art & Design in New York, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Part of the creativity-inspiring series Exploring Art Quilts with SAQA, which blends interviews, information, and today’s latest works and designs. It also serves as a long-term creative reference. Be inspired by 16 artists living around the world, peer at every detail in photos from SAQA’s recent exhibitions, and much more.