Training School – Embroidery: Terminologies and Practices from Antiquity to Early Modern Times

Embroidery: terminologies and practices from Antiquity to Early Modern times
16-18 May 2022 – Muro Leccese (Italy)

Organised by Working Groups 2, 3 & 4
Organisers: Francesco Meo, Louise Quillien, Magdalena Wozniak

Embroidery was a technique used by textile craftsmen and women since the earliest Antiquity and has given birth to a great diversity of textile traditions in the various parts of the world. Embroidery allows to paint complex patterns on textiles, tell stories and convey messages thanks to figurative and non-figurative patterns, and through calligraphed words. Adding material on an existing fabric, this technique transforms it, adding relief, shine, or colour, enhancing its artistic, technical, and economic qualities. Thanks to the opportunities of the Euroweb network, we aim to offer training on this diverse and complex technique and to gather researchers, trainers, and trainees, of different specializations in order to encourage the exchanges of knowledge and know-how.

Being an event organized jointly by Working Groups 2, 3 and 4, the Training School will especially address the following questions:

  • What was the terminology used to describe this technique, tools, and materials in ancient languages and how to properly translate them in modern languages?
  • How to identify embroidery through ancient sources: textile remains, texts and iconography?
  • What embroidery and embroiders tells us of past societies and cultures: what stories tells the embroidered textiles?
  • When and how people wear embroidered garments and made embroidered textiles; were embroideries made by specialized craftsmen?

This training school will offer:
– theorical trainings on embroidery: terminology, technique, fibres and tools
– practical trainings
– presentations of case studies by trainees

 

PROGRAMME

DAY 1 – 16 MAY 2022

SESSION 1 – THEORY

10.00-10.30 OPENING AND WELCOME

10.30-10.45 Embroidery and decoration of fabrics in pre-Roman South Italy
Francesco Meo (University of Salento, Italy)

10.45-11.15 The Cuthbert Maniple Recreation Project: a discussion about early medieval embroidery techniques and materials’
Katrin Kania (Pallia – Mittelalter hautnah, Germany) & Alexandra Makin (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)

11.15-11.30 DISCUSSION

11.30-12.00 COFFEE BREAK

12.00-12.30 Introduction to Embroidery from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period: Terminology, Techniques, and Workshop Practices
Astrid Castres (École pratique des Hautes Études, France)

12.30-12.45 Byzantine textiles in Albania: The Epitaph of Gllavenica
Erilda Selaj (Studio House Kadare – Tirana, Albania)

12.45-13.00 DISCUSSION

13.00 LUNCH

SESSION 2 – PRACTICE WITH CRAFTSPEOPLE
for 12 selected people from Albania, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Tunisia, United Kingdom.

15.00-16.30 Salento and its traditional embroidery
Anna Borgia (Punto Maglie Association, Italy)

16.30-17.00 COFFEE BREAK

17.00-18.00 Salento and its traditional embroidery
Anna Borgia (Punto Maglie Association, Italy)

DAY 2 – 17 MAY 2022

10.00-11.00 The art of filet
Tiziana Zappatore (University of Salento, Italy)

11.00-11.30 COFFEE BREAK

11.30-13.00 The art of filet
Tiziana Zappatore (University of Salento, Italy)

13.00 LUNCH

15.00-16.30 Salento and its traditional embroidery
Anna Borgia (Punto Maglie Association, Italy)

16.30-17.00 COFFEE BREAK

17.00-18.00 Salento and its traditional embroidery
Anna Borgia (Punto Maglie Association, Italy)

DAY 3 – 18 MAY 2022

10.00-11.00 The 4th century BC fabric of Herdonia: reproduction of its decorative pattern
Tiziana Zappatore (University of Salento, Italy)

11.00-11.30 COFFEE BREAK

11.30-13.00 The 4th century BC fabric of Herdonia: reproduction of its decorative pattern
Tiziana Zappatore (University of Salento, Italy)

13.00 LUNCH

15.00-17.00 The 4th century BC fabric of Herdonia: reproduction of its decorative pattern
Tiziana Zappatore (University of Salento, Italy)

17.00 CLOSING OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL

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The full programme of the Ancient Fashion Week at Muro Leccese (16th – 20th of May) can be found here.