Synopses & Reviews
This broad-reaching collection of essays constitutes a thorough introduction to the fields and methodologies concerned with studies of textiles and dress of the Middle Ages. New themes and critical viewpoints from many disciplines are brought to bear on the medieval material in the areas of archaeology, art and architecture, economics, law, history, literature, religion, and textile technology. The contributors address surviving objects and artifacts and interpret representations in texts and images. The articles extend in time from the fifth to the sixteenth centuries, and cover Europe from Scandinavia, England, and Ireland in the north, to Italy and the Mediterranean basin in the south. Emphasis is placed on the significant role of trade and cultural exchanges as they impact appearance and its constituent materials.
Review
"An outstanding series of essays by historians, art historians, and literary specialists on a wide variety of topics in medieval textiles, from manufacture and use, to style, fashion, iconography, and the many shades of social meaning." --William W. Clark, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
"This volume demonstrates the wide variety of excellent new work now being done on dress and costume history. The papers are rich in content and cover a wide variety of periods and subject matter." --Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
"The volume is a valuable addition to the both the library of a general reader and a costume historian. For the general reader the books provides ready access to information ranging over a six-hundred year period. For the costume historian there is a wealth of detailed information to add breadth and depth to one's knowledge, with an additional resource of information in the form of copious endnotes and bibliographic references."--Sandra L. Rosenbau, Dress
Synopsis
In this wide-ranging study of costume history contributors explore fashion, textiles, and the representation of clothing in the middle ages. Essays combine the perspectives of archaeology, art history, economics, religion, costume history, material culture, and literary criticism and explore materials from England, France, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, and Ireland. The collection focuses on multiple aspects of textiles and dress - their making, meaning, and representation - and explores the impact of international trade and other forms of cultural exchange.
Synopsis
This broad-reaching collection of essays constitutes a thorough introduction to the fields and methodologies concerned with studies of textiles and dress of the Middle Ages. New themes and critical viewpoints from many disciplines are brought to bear on the medieval material in the areas of archaeology, art and architecture, economics, law, history, literature, religion, and textile technology. The contributors address surviving objects and artifacts and interpret representations in texts and images. The articles extend in time from the fifth to the sixteenth centuries, and cover Europe from Scandinavia, England, and Ireland in the north, to Italy and the Mediterranean basin in the south. Emphasis is placed on the significant role of trade and cultural exchanges as they impact appearance and its constituent materials.
About the Author
Désirée G. Koslin teaches dress and textile courses in the graduate department of Museum Studies: Costume and Textile at SUNYs Fashion Institute of Technology.
Janet E. Snyder teaches the history of art and architecture in the Division of Art of the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Désirée G. Koslin & Janet E. Snyder *
The Early Middle Ages * Appearance and Ideology: Creating Distinctions between Clerics and Lay Persons in Early Medieval Gaul--Bonnie Effros * From Self-sufficiency to Commerce: Structural and Artefactual Evidence for Textile Manufacture inEastern England in the Pre-conquest Period--Nina Crummy * Dressing the Part:Depictions of Noble Costume in Irish High Crosses--Margaret Williams *
TheCentral Middle Ages * Marie de France's Bisclavret: What the Werewolf Will and Will Not Wear--Gloria Thomas Gilmore * From Content to Form: CourtClothing in Mid-Twelfth-Century Northern French Sculpture--Janet Snyder *Fashion in French Crusade Literature: Desiring Infidel Textiles--Sarah-GraceHeller * Christ as A Windblown Sleeve: The Ambiguity of Clothing as Sign inGottfried von Straßburg's Tristan--Margarita Yanson * Addressing the Law:Costume as Signifier in Medieval Legal Miniatures--Susan L'Engle *
The Late Middle Ages * From Battlefield to Court: The Invention of Fashion in the Fourteenth Century--Odile Blanc * Unraveling the Mystery of Jan van Eyck'sCloths of Honor: The Ghent Altarpiece--Donna Cottrell * Marked Difference:Earrings and "the Other" in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Art--Penny HowellJolly * The Margaret Fitzgerald Tomb Effigy: A Late Medieval Headdress and Gown in St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny--Elizabeth Wincott Heckett * "As proud as a dog in a doublet": The Importance of Clothing in The Shoemaker's Holiday--Linda Anderson * Value-added Stuffs and Shifts in Meaning: An Overview and a Case Study of Medieval Textile Paradigms--Désirée Koslin