Paula Hohti

Last week, our entire team gathered in Copenhagen for a three-day team meeting. This was our first big ‘milestone’ as a team, because for the past six months, we have all been engaged with identifying and collecting evidence for our project. We have gone through and photographed thousands of documents in Italian and Danish archives, from inventories and account books to notarial contracts, as well as looked at visual images in museums and printed books, and surveyed printed costume and pattern books and books of secret, searching for evidence of lower class dress, fashion and beauty.

Michele Robinson presenting us some of the sources she has been working on.

So last week, it was finally time to put all the sources together, and to assess how we want to use them and in what ways we will make the sources available for the public. Our researchers Stefania, Michele and Anne-Kristine broke down the sources in statistics, and I was extremely pleased about the results. So far, we have 780 artisanal inventories for Italy and 418 for Denmark that we can transcribe and use as a quantitative data. We have also identified 585 Italian printed books that can be used for qualitative analysis and experiments. In addition, we have many types of sources that support our work, such as account books, sumptuary law documents, diaries and friendship albums.

Chart showing the amount of collected inventories in Siena, Venice and Florence. By Stefania Montemezzo.

This data -and our database which will be made public in the future- will form an important basis for our future work when we think about how ordinary men and women dressed in the Renaissance period, where they bought their clothes and accessories, and how the lower social orders connected with and understood ‘fashion’. The wealth of evidence allows us, not just to speak and write about fashion dissemination in sixteenth and seventeenth Europe, but it also enables us to investigate how we can use documentary and visual data as a basis for our forthcoming historical and digital experiments, which will start next January. This will be so exciting!

Breakdown of class and gender depicted in Bartolomeo Grassi, Dei Veri ritratti degl’habiti di tutte le parti del mondo intagliati in rame (Roma: Bartolomeo Grassi, 1585). By Michele Robinson.

The possibility to gather and share the research material, and to be able to discuss ideas with so many bright researchers, is definitely one of the greatest benefits of an ERC project. But for me, personally, perhaps the greatest thing about this project is the collaborative nature of our work and a truly good team spirit. We have fantastic people in our team, and we are learning, brainstorming, communicating, planning, getting excited, and achieving goals together.

One of the highlights of our meeting was that it allowed us, once again, to spend time together and, not just work, but also have nice meals and a glass of wine after a hard day’s work! This time, we had invited another ERC project, the ARTECHNE led by Sven Dupré in the Netherlands, to join us for one of the evenings. We had an excellent dinner at Sticks ‘n Sushi, and fantastic conversations about our common interests and experiences, and possibilities for collaboration.

Sharing experiences with some of the ARTECHNE project team.

During the three days in Copenhagen, we took some important decisions about the forthcoming months: how we work as a team, what we want to achieve within the next six months, and last but not least, how we will involve the broader academic communities and general public more closely with our project. This Autumn, we will organise open lectures and set up voluntary activities around our project. If you are interested in participating, look out for the news section of our website and the newsletter for further information!

On 14–15 June Paula Hohti, Anne-Kirstine Sindvald Larsen, Michele Robinson and Piia Lempiäinen attended the The Art of the Poor in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance Conference at Warburg Institute, organised by Dr. Rembrandt Duits. This two-day conference aimed to shift the focus from elite groups to popular groups, and explore art and aesthetic values of the so called “poor” during medieval and early modern period. Important focal point was to raise discussion on how we determine who was poor, what we consider art, and how different art forms were spreading among different socio-economical groups.

The conference saw several interesting papers discussing the art by, for, and about the poor. The topics ranged from the depiction of poverty in paintings, frescoed churches and artworks commissioned by village communities or artisans, to many aspects of the material culture of the poor. These included for example presentations on medieval pottery, devotional souvenirs and candlesticks, their aspirational meanings as well as practical usage.

On Friday, the morning session was dedicated to clothing, when Paula Hohti and Anne-Kristine Sindvald Larsen gave papers on their research. Paula discussed the changing artisan fashions in Italy, while Anne-Kristine gave her first presentation about her PhD research on Danish artisan clothing. Both presentations were received with great interest and they sparkled a lively discussion afterwards. We were very happy to see Anne-Kristine present her materials for the first time, and are excited to see how her research progresses.

Anne-Kristine Sindvald Larsen presenting her research.

Anne-Kristine Sindvald Larsen and Paula Hohti

Our Team in Venice.

On 6–12 May, the entire Refashioning team took part of a training trip in Northern Italy. The aim of this trip was to deepen our understanding of the production and use of textiles in Italy during the Medieval and Early Modern period, and to do so, we had decided to move across Tuscany, Emilia and Veneto, the main centres of Italian textile production.

Our week consisted of several formative activities that supported the aim of the trip. We started the week in Florence, one of the European capitals for the wool production in the Renaissance period. On Monday, we took a weaving course in Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio, where our teacher, Angela Giordano, thought us different regional weaving techniques from Tuscany, Sardinia, Lombardy and Marche. We were excited to learn about the mechanics of different loom types and about the weaving process, and enjoyed the day of concentrated weaving.

Weaving workshop at Fondazione Lisio.

Hard at work.

On Tuesday, after visiting the Museo del Tessuto in Prato, we travelled to Bologna,where on Wednesday we visited the Museo del Patrimonio Industriale. The museum showcases the long industrial history of Bologna, such as the history of local silk production, which made Bologna one of the main European centres for silk production, specialising in in the manufacturing of veils, already during the medieval period. The museum retains a functioning copy of the Bolognese silk mill, one of the first examples of proto-industrial production, and it was fascinating to study the mill and afterwards see the canals that powered the silk mills.

1:2 scale silk mill model at the Museo del Patrimonio Industriale.

Bologna.

Moving North, Padova was our next stop. On Thursday we had a joint seminar with the Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World (DISSGeA) of the University of Padua on Fashion and Popular Groups in Renaissance Europe. We met local scholars Andrea Caracausi, Salvatore Ciriacono, Mattia Viale and Francesco Vianello, who talked to us about the production and consumption of silk ribbons, the budget of Venetian artisans and the consumption of textiles of the Veneto women.  This opportunity to engage with other researchers and exchange ideas was one of the highlights of our trip, and presented interesting possibilities for possible future co-operation.

Professor Andrea Caracausi giving a presentation on ribbons.

Our team with local scholars in Padova.

To properly conclude our visit, of course, we stayed for two days in La Serenissima: Venice. On Friday, we visited Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua, one of the oldest – and still active – weaving factories of the city.  We had the possibility to see weavers and looms (once used by the Silk Guild of the Republic of Venice) at work,producing the refined soprarizzo velvet, and to touch with our own hands fabrics made following ancient techniques. One of the most striking feature of the workshop was that many of the looms and tools were old, some even from the 17th century, and this gave us some kind of idea what a 17th century weaving workshop might have looked and sounded like.

At Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua.

At Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua.

Velvet in the making.

Pattern samples at Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua.

Besides silk, we learnt a lot also about lace. We started our “lace journey” in Burano, at Museo del Merletto, where the production of lace concentrated in the 19th century, and concluded it at Palazzo Mocenigo, with a backstage visit to the museum collections. There our expert guide, Paola, showed us extant examples of Venetian lace from 16th to 20th century, and explained us in detail the history and the manufacturing process. As an extra treat, we got to study and actually hold a 15th century pianelle platform shoe, which had just returned from exhibition in Canada.

Unfinished piece of Venetian lace with it’s original pattern at Museo del Merletto.

Paola showings us details of a 16th century Venetian lace.

Paula was over the moon to hold this 15th century platform shoe in her hands.

In addition to this stimulating programme, we thoroughly enjoyed spending quality time with our team. And of course, our learning efforts were eased by Italian food, culture and lovely weather. After the week we reflected on everything we had learned, and got many ideas for our future events.