Over the Christmas/New Years’ holiday, my aunt, TheEnabler, and I made it to some museums. I’ve been a bit behind on telling you about some of the textile craft things I saw.
First, some stuff I don’t have any pictures of. At the Bode-Museum, the Byzantine Art collection included some really amazing textiles from late antiquity (6th – 8th century CE) from Egypt and the Near East. They were mostly linen and wool, with amazing decorative motifs in bright blues, reds and greens. I’d forgotten my camera that day so no pics. There were also lots of stone capitals and scultures, including a great one with some very real looking sheep. I plan to go back at some point and spend a bit more time with these.
The Deutsche Historisches Museum was the next place with cool textile stuff. There were several great tapestries, including one which depicted “exotic” trade with some (pretty funky) camels, Africans and symbols of the spice trade and another showing a jousting tournament. To keep the tapestries safe, the low lighting also made any effort to get pics a lost cause.
There was also a really amazing Ottoman tent which had been captured when they were forced to retreat quickly, leaving their camp behind. Similarly, it was behind protective glass and dimly lit, so pics didn’t turn out. But if you’re ever at the museum – definitely go check it out!
I was able to get a couple good photos though:
First up, spindles and needles from the Slavic settlement in Spandau (just outside Berlin) from the 10-12th century. Next, a plague mask for doctors to wear while visiting plague victims in the 17th century from velvet, leather and glass. Lastly, a padded linen and leather hood to wear under a helmet from the 15th century. It’s really rare for them to survive, so it was pretty cool to see one.
Last, we visited the Alte Nationalgalerie to see the impressionist and romatic art collections. There were several paintings where textile crafts were featured. First, we walked into one gallery dominated by this amazing piece:
It’s “Flax Barn at Laren” by Max Liebermann. Here are some close ups:
I feel like it’s an inbetween step in mass production I hadn’t really learned about before. It’s not home cottage spinning, but it’s not mechanized either. Just lots of people working in concert.
And then I found these gems as we went along:
Hans Thoma – The Artist’s Sister Agathe
Carl Blechen – Spinnerinnen in Cervara
What’s interesting* is that the second is incorrectly translated. The English caption says “weaverwomen” and I was ready to be mad at the artist for not knowing what he was painting until I realized he titled his piece correctly. Somebody at the museum mistranslated.
*by interesting I mean infuriating because it only takes a little knowledge to know that “spinning” and “weaving” are two very different crafts and I’m pretty sure an art museum curator would be pissed if somebody labeled a charcoal drawing as an oil painting.