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Smock
unknown - Enlarge image
Smock
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
1600-1620 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Linen embroidered with silk
- Museum number:
T.326-1982
- Gallery location:
In Storage
A deep carnation-pink silk is the only colour used in the embroidery on this early 17th-century woman’s smock. The needlework is equally simple using just outline stitch. Nevertheless, the interlaced lattice enclosing floral motifs creates a visually satisfying design. The knotted composition was inspired by the strapwork of Italian mannerist ornamentation, which became a popular design element in Elizabethan and Jacobean decorative arts. Late 16th and early 17th-century portraits reveal the frequent use of strapwork in embroidery in the form of a grid of rectilinear and circular forms worked in contrasting colours and frequently outlined in metal thread. These are often interspersed with images of flora and fauna, natural and fantastic, inspired by herbals, bestiaries and emblem books. Here the embroidery design consists of two repeating patterns which run diagonally from lower left to upper right; one with a carnation alternating, the other with roses.
