Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Enikő SIPOS: Hungarian-Related Textile Works in Switzerland
5. Depiction of dying a patterned fabric in a thirteenth-century French manuscript. Thefigure on the right lifts the cloth out of the dying solution; the one on the left shows the pattern, painted with tnordant previously. History of Technology, Pre-scientific industrial chemistry, Dyestufis, mordants, p. 364. the cloth was embroidered. Cloth was painted for special occasions or generally because the velvet or the silk cloths ordered from Italy and Spain with special patterns (coats of arms, slogans) were extremely expensive and took long to make. 1 1 According to one source, in the middle of the fifteenth century it took a day to weave 30 to 40 cm of velvet that was 57 cm wide. Going by their remuneration, the websters (weavers) producing the elaborate cut-pile velvets can be regarded as well-paid artists rather than simple craftsmen. 1 2 The price of a cloth was based on the silk, gold and silver thread and dyes used for producing it, but the grand total would also reflect the complexity of the patterns, too. Gold and silver-interwoven brocade and velvet was the most expensive. 13 The patterns of silk and velvet fabrics were imitated, as were the silk and velvet fabrics themselves. Coloured wool-powder, obtained from the shearers was scattered on a pre-printed adhesive material which, after it dried, created the illusion of velvet. Often powdered Muscovy glass was used to imitate shiny cloths interwoven with metal thread. Printing naturalistic animal motifs in silver and gold on a dark background was very popular in the fourteenth century. Later motifs included the pomegranate and its variations. Fifteenth-century Venice was an important centre of textile printing which was the job of painters who belonged to guilds. Printing blocks were 30 x 30 cm, but some were as large as 50 x 60 cm. Typically, five or more different printing blocks would have been used for a single piece of cloth (fig. 4). 1 4 Copying the patterns and multiplying predrawn heraldic motifs and animal figures could save much time and cost. 1 5 This brings us to the fundamental difference between painting and dying. When a cloth is painted, the mixture of a binding agent and paint is applied to the surface of the cloth directly or after priming. Next, the pattern was drawn on the cloth (stretched on a frame) in charcoal or chalk, depending on the colour of the fabric. This was then retraced in ink or mixture of a binding agent and paint. The binding agent was usually egg white, linseed oil or gum arabic. The cloth was often primed before being painted. The priming was damp plaster mixed with size or chalk which, before gilding in particular, would have been given a pattern with the help of stamps. Instructions reveal that the technique of painting on textile was similar to painting on wood board. In the process of dying, the cloth was soaked in a watery solution of a plant or animal-based dye and treated with metallic salts to fix or develop the colours. Textile dyes used in the Middle Ages were not colour-fast unless treated with a metallic salt solution, that is mordant (fig. 5). 1 6 138
