ANNE WANNER'S Textiles in History / CIETA Embroidery Newsletter nr. 12
| Swiss wool embroidery |
Embroidered altar frontal of the 16th c., originating
from the upper Rhine region
compared to two similar embroideries. (by A.W.)
| The Reinhart collection in
Winterthur (Switzerland) is a collection of
paintings, but there are also a few textiles, like an
embroidered altar frontal. Some embroidered numbers on
the piece can be read as 1511, but as a date it seems to
be quite early. The embroidery shows in the center the
scene of Saint Anne, Mary and Christ, surrounded by
Saints: Christophorus, Stephanus, Blasius, Laurentius. The group of Saint Anne, Mary and Christ looks very similar to the group on the altar frontal in Frauenfeld (Switzerland) shown in Newsletter Nr.3, 1996, from the convent of St. Katharinental, is dated 1588. The flowers, especially the grass on the ground of the Winterthur piece is embroidered quite like an third altar frontal in Villingen (Germany), from another ladies convent (Clarisses). By its coat of arms it can be dated into the early 16th c.. It is not known in which way the 3 embroideries are related to one another. But as other similar embroideries exist, one could think of a workshop somewhere in the Lake of Constance region. |
| A private
collector recently acquired a wool embroidery on a dark
woolen cloth. It measures 238cm x 198cm, there are coat of arms of the Swiss families Georg Reding and Dorothea Tschudi. The embroidery is worked on a dark woolen ground with colored wool yarns in coaching stitch (Bokhara). In the center Mary is represented, close to her appear the coat of arms, on the sides the Saints Barbara with the tower and Catherina with the wheel are shown on a background of tendrils of plants. |
|
| Hanging wool embroidery Switzerland, 16th c. private collection |
| home summary next previous | Last revised Jan 25, 2000 |