ANNE WANNER'S Textiles in History   /  book reviews, articles
 
  Merletti e Ricami italiani - Italian Laces and Embroideries, edited by Christina Notore, Essays by Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols, Marialuisa Rizzini, Bianca Rosa Bellomo, Bologna April 2005, text in Italian and in English, 192 pages, 161 pictures: illustrated in colour and black and white, ISBN 8889262060

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  This book accompanies the second edition of Italia invita - the international Forum of Lace and Embroidery, a biennial event dedicated to this important aspect of Italy's cultural heritage, an opportunity for embroiderers and lacemakers to meet and to display and discuss their works.

As a contribution to the understanding past and present developments in these areas, this publication includes research into various techniques - this research formed the core topic of the Exhihition "Le Origini" (Origins) and the fundamental theme of the 2005 Italien Invita forum.

This is the first volume of a series of historical and educational publications that the Association plans to produce, thus launching the Italia Invita Colleciton.

   The theme for this exhibition of Italia Invita is "Origins" - a study of lace and embroidery based on traditional techniques in the 16th century; these have been resurrected since the end of the 19th century and are popular hobbies in Italy today.

To maintain a manageable focus, embroidery made with gold and silver thread as well as modern embroidery for fashion, theatrical and ecclesiastic use have been excluded for the purposes of this study.

This initial work includes only the lace and embroidery stitches of a specific period; this will have to be expanded in the future, when works from the following centuries will be analysed as well, thus hopefully contributing to further our study and understanding of these textile masterworks. 

     
  Thessy Schoenholzer not only proposes groups and comparisons of lace and embroideries, but she also gives drawings and a glossary of stitches in context found in the "Origins": from the middle-ages to the beginning of the 17th century, in embroidery and lace and still in use in Italy
     
 

Sansepolcro lace

 
Mannocci needle painting
 
  Contents:
- Laces and embroideries from the 16th century and from today, a proposal of groups and comparison
by Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols

- The Origins: studies on lace works and embroideries based on pattern books from the 15th and the early 16th centuries

- Borders: Italian techniques, as still in use today:
Lanzo folk art, Valsesian puncetto, needle painted pictures, pulled thread work, Bandera work, Venetian bobbin lace, Cantu lace, lace di Luserna, modern trousseau, Aquileia embroidery, Flemish work with 3 pairs-Gorizia stitch, Assia embroidery-drawn thread work, Burano needle work, reticella, Aemilia ars, ars Bizantina, ars Canusina, cutwork and Medici work, Cesena bobbin lace, antique work, cross stitch, Macramé, Ligurian lace, Sansepolcro lace, Caterina de'Medici embroidery, Pisan work, Mannocci needle painting, Casalguidi embroidery, Florentine Quilting, Ars Panicalensis (needle embroidery on tulle), Umbrian herbarium, San Feliciano lacis, Irish lace of Isola Maggiore, Orvieto lace, Assisi work, Deruta stitch, Deruta polychrome embroidery, Perugia work, Umbrian work, Offida bobbin lace, Florentine stitch or Bargello, traditional trousseau, bobbin lace of Pescocostanzo, Bosa lacis, punta brodu, punt'e nu, Sicilian lacis, Sicilian drawn work

- "I would like to be understood without speaking ..." Laces, embroideries and pattern books in the 16th century by Marialuisa Rizzini

- Elisa Ricci: Embroideries and pattern books in the 16th century
by Bianca Rosa Bellomo

- List of exhibitors
     
   
home  content Last revised July 16, 2005

For further information contact Anne Wanner wanner@datacomm.ch