Pale salmon pink silk lampas; probably Italian; the salmon pink silk, possibly faded from red, woven with gold thread; part of design available shows kneeling hind and lion amid sunrays.

Piece of woven silk lampas. Pale salmon pink silk (possibly originally red) and gold thread. The partial design shows a kneeling, collared hind amongst stylised large flowers and leaves, and a lion stalking downwards amid sunrays.

From the Forrer Collection. According to notes made in accession register, this is one of 203 early textiles acquired for £700 in 1899.

Dr. Robert Forrer of Strasburg corresponded frequently with the V&A between 1893 and 1920, offering for sale a wide variety of medieval and Renaissance artefacts, mostly European, including textiles, jewellery, medallions, books, tiles, clocks, furniture, ironwork and miscellaneous items. Many of these items, although not all, were subsequently purchased by the Museum.

Historical significance: Example of 14th century lampas weave silk with fashionable animal motif that can be read from a symbolic/allegoric viewpoint.

This is almost certainly an Italian silk from the mid-late 14th century. The Italian weavers started out by producing silks that used elements directly lifted from imported Eastern silks, combined with European motifs. From the mid 1320s through to the late 14th century, Italian silks began to feature witty animal designs, as here. The fragment of the full design shows a kneeling, collared hind amongst stylised large flowers and leaves. The deer is gazing up towards a lion (only the paws now remain, along with the lion's rump and upper tail along the bottom edge.) amid sunrays. The full repeat would have been 19 cm across, and between 25 to 30 cm high. It is hard to be more certain, as the centre part of the lion's body is not present. The selvedge, along the right edge, is plain white/cream, now rather soiled. The lion would have been cut off halfway by the edge of the repeat, its rear end and tail emerging on the other side of the repeat, so that the overall pattern would appear to have a greater repeat area when matched up.

The motif of the upwards gazing creature appears in several Italian woven fabrics of the 14th and early 15th centuries. 1277-1864, 502-1892, and 8624-1863 also feature kneeling deer with their eyes and heads upraised. It is not just deer portrayed thus; dogs are also seen in a similar pose with their eyes cast upwards, in 773-1893, 8266-1863 & 656-1894, 1299-1864, and 8611-1863, although in the last example, the dogs are sitting up with one paw raised. Many, although not all of these beasts are collared, the stags in 8624-1863 are chained as well. Collars and chains indicate ownership and/or control; this is enhanced by the submissive pose of the deer in the sample. The sunrays are drawn as waving parallel lines, each pair of lines drawing into a point. This seems to have been a stylistic shorthand of the period, as identical style sunrays are seen in 1314-1864, where eagles are bowing their heads as the rays descend upon them, as well as in 8624-1863, where chained stags are gazing up into the rays. The symbolism seems strongly religious, with noble creatures awed by the descending light. In the example here, the lion itself seems to be radiating the sunrays that have attracted the hind's attention. In the world of iconography, the lion has many attributes. In the medieval period it was used to represent the Resurrection (bestiaries claimed that lion cubs were born dead, and could only be brought to life by their father's breath). The lion can also represent pride, wrath or choler.

The fabric is a lampas weave. This is a weave in which a supplementary weft creates the figured pattern. The threads in the supplementary weft float over the surface of the woven base fabric, and are held down by binding warp threads. The example here has a twill ground, with the design picked out in gold threads. It was probably originally red, but is now faded to a very pale salmon pink, almost cream.

The subject matter of the fabric and its original red and gold colourway would have made it particularly appropriate for ecclesiastical use. These luxurious lampas silks were also used for fashionable courtly dress. In visual sources such as the early 15th century Devonshire Tapestries (T.202 to 205-1957), courtly figures are depicted lifesize, wearing sumptuous garments with large-scale patterns and motifs. These probably post-date the sample, and are predominantly patterns with floral motifs rather than depictive vignettes. However, the scales of the patterns in relation to their wearers are similar. The books on 14th and 15th century dress as portrayed in visual sources listed below show richly dressed figures portrayed, the patterns of their garb tending to be almost exclusively foliate/floral. Figurative designs such as this, with creatures in the design, are not represented which raises the question of whether these patterns were deemed inappropriate for secular dress, which is almost always shown as either plain, or bearing patterns based upon leaves, flowers, and the "pomegranate" design.

- Daniel Milford-Cottam (2006/7)

References:

J. Hall, Hall's Dictionary Of Subjects & Symbols In Art, (London, revised ed. 1979)
J. Herald,Renaissance Dress In Italy 1400-1500 (New Jersey, 1981)
J. Herald, "Italian Silks 1500-1900", chapter 18 of 5000 Years Of Textiles, ed. J. Harris, 5,000 Years of Textiles, London: British Museum Publications, 1993.
L. Monnas, "Italian Silks 1300-1500", chapter 17 of 5000 Years Of Textiles, ed. J. Harris. (London, 1993)
M. Scott, Late Gothic Europe, 1400-1500 (New Jersey, 1980)
L. Woolley, Medieval Life and Leisure in the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries (London, 2002)

This is almost certainly an Italian silk from the mid to late 14th century. Italian weavers produced silks that used elements directly lifted from imported Eastern silks, incorporating European motifs. From the mid 1320s through to the late 1300s, Italian silks featured animal designs.

The symbolism in this piece seems strongly religious, with noble creatures awed by the descending light. The lion itself seems to be radiating the sunrays that have attracted the hind's attention. In medieval iconography, the lion was used to represent the Resurrection of Christ. The lion can also represent pride, wrath or choler. This subject matter and the luxurious, originally red silk woven with gold thread would have made this textile particularly appropriate for ecclesiastical use.

807-1899