Your basket is currently empty!
Medieval Splendour in gold thread and silk
The Acupictrix, alias Dr Jessica Grimm, writes a weekly blog on medieval goldwork embroidery and related topics.
Dr Jessica Grimm is a member of Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Ancienes (CIETA), Bundesverband Kunsthandwerk, MEDATS and S.E.W.
Blog categories
Aosta Cathedral, Italy: A 15th century embroidered chasuble
By now, you probably know that chasing embroidered medieval vestments is kinda my thing :). Although I am fortunate enough to be able to travel regularly, a lot of my research happens behind a computer screen. Trailing through publications, especially the literature references, is how I find new-to-me… Read More
Opus anglicanum: St Nicholas Dalmatic
A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to finally visit the Cathedral Treasury of Anagni near Rome, Italy. The treasury houses several pieces of Opus anglicanum, not only the namesake cope. One of these pieces is the chasuble, which you can see below. However, this vestment… Read More
Tutorial: Diaper Pattern Couching
When I demonstrate diaper pattern couching, people always ask if I have the complete pattern in my head somehow as there is nothing drawn or printed on the fabric. And even with my explanation, people don’t always fully understand how it is done. Not even embroiderers familiar with… Read More
Late Medieval Embroidery Guilds in the Low Countries
In the 80s, we had an art historian in the Netherlands who started to systematically trawl through historical records to find late medieval and early modern embroiderers and embroidery guilds. She published a couple of great articles on the topic. However, the large overview publication she promised in… Read More
Design process of late medieval embroidered vestments
Last week, we looked at five different embroidered versions of the same Adoration of the Magi design. By changing materials and embroidery techniques, these late 15th and early 16th century embroideries look quite different from each other. The scene was part of four chasubles and a loose chasuble… Read More
Mass-produced medieval goldwork embroidery: The Adoration of the Magi
If you have followed this blog for a while, you already know that medieval goldwork embroidery was mass-produced. The designs were used more than once, sometimes even on the same vestment. Survived have mainly the simpler single-figure orphreys or the, possibly block-printed, naive embroidered scenes from Germany. But… Read More