Woven Silk
c.1400 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
The design of the lampas shows Christ, the morning after his resurrection, appearing to Mary Magdalene, who was the first of his disciples to recognize him. With his left arm raised, the Christ is portrayed at the moment when he stops Magdalene, kneeling with hands outstretched, from touching him (Noli me tangere). The lampas was probably woven in Lucca or Florence, which were important centres of silk weaving in Europe at the time. Such silks were complex to weave because of the pattern and their costly metallic threads and therefore only accessible to a very small percentage of the population. Lampases with the same design can be found in multiple collections; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Museo Nazionale del Bargello (Florence), Musée des Tissus (Lyon), Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (New York), Kunstgewerbemuseum (Köln), Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg), Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire (Bruxelles) and Textilmuseum (Krefeld).
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Woven in silk and so-called ‘Cyprian gold’ (gilded membrane, possibly catgut strip twisted around a linen core) |
Brief description | Lampas, c.1400, Italy (Lucca or Florence); broken twill ground, lancé pattern wefts bound in 1-3 twill |
Physical description | Design with Mary Magdalene kneeling before Christ, the morning after his resurrection; in his right hand he holds the redeemer’s staff representing his triumph over death, while his left is raised in the moment when he urges Mary Magdalene not to touch him. |
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | The design of the lampas shows Christ, the morning after his resurrection, appearing to Mary Magdalene, who was the first of his disciples to recognize him. With his left arm raised, the Christ is portrayed at the moment when he stops Magdalene, kneeling with hands outstretched, from touching him (Noli me tangere). The lampas was probably woven in Lucca or Florence, which were important centres of silk weaving in Europe at the time. Such silks were complex to weave because of the pattern and their costly metallic threads and therefore only accessible to a very small percentage of the population. Lampases with the same design can be found in multiple collections; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Museo Nazionale del Bargello (Florence), Musée des Tissus (Lyon), Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (New York), Kunstgewerbemuseum (Köln), Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg), Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire (Bruxelles) and Textilmuseum (Krefeld). |
Collection | |
Accession number | 146-1891 |
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Record created | December 15, 1999 |
Record URL |
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