Byzantine silk
Byzantine silk is silk woven in the Byzantine Empire (Byzantium) from about the fourth century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
The Byzantine capital of Constantinople was the first significant silk-weaving center in Europe. Silk was one of the most important commodities in the Byzantine economy, used by the state both as a means of payment and of diplomacy.[1]
Byzantine silks are significant for their brilliant colours, use of gold thread, and intricate designs that approach the pictorial complexity of embroidery in loom-woven fabric.[2] Byzantium dominated silk production in Europe throughout the Early Middle Ages, until the establishment of the Italian silk-weaving industry in the 12th century and the conquest and break-up of the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade (1204).
Development
In the time of the
Shortly after the smuggling of silkworm eggs
New types of looms and weaving techniques also played a part.
Regulations governing the use of expensive
Figured (patterned) Byzantine silks of the 6th (and possibly 5th) centuries show overall designs of small motifs such as hearts,
Woven textiles
Of the five basic weaves used in Byzantium and the Islamic weaving centers of the Mediterranean – tabby, twill, damask, lampas and tapestry – the most important product was the weft-faced compound twill called
These rich silks – literally worth their weight in gold – were powerful political weapons of the Byzantine Empire between the 4th and 12th centuries. Diplomatic gifts of Byzantine silks cemented alliances with the Franks. Byzantium granted silk-trading concessions to the sea powers of Venice, Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi to secure naval and military aid for Byzantine territories.[21]
The influence exerted by Byzantine silk weaving was profound. Byzantine silk court ritual and ecclesiastical practices were adopted by the Franks, just as Byzantine court furnishing styles and dress codes were echoed across the Islamic world. Byzantium developed elaborate silk court attire and set the style for use of silk in civil and military uniforms and for rich religious vestments.... These silks served as a form of portable wealth that could be profitably disposed of in times of need.[22]
Silks survive in Western Europe from the graves of important figures, used in book bindings, and also
Tapestry and embroidery
In addition to woven dress and furnishing fabrics, Byzantine workshops were also known for woven
... they artfully produce, both for themselves and for their wives and children, clothing beflowered and wrought with ten thousand objects....When, therefore, they dress themselves and appear in public, they look like pictured walls in the eyes of those that meet them. And perhaps even the children surround them, smiling to one another and pointing out with the finger the picture on the garment; and walk along after them, following them for a long time. On these garments are lions and leopards; bears and bulls and dogs; woods and rocks and hunters ... You may see the wedding of Galilee, and the water-pots; the paralytic carrying his bed on his shoulders; the blind man being healed with the clay; the woman with the bloody issue, taking hold of the border of the garment; the sinful woman falling at the feet of Jesus; Lazarus returning to life from the grave. In doing this they consider that they are acting piously and are clad in garments pleasing to God. But if they take my advice let them sell those clothes and honour the living image of God. Do not picture Christ on your garments. It is enough that he once suffered the humiliation of dwelling in a human body which of his own accord he assumed for our sakes. So, not upon your robes but upon your soul carry about his image.[28]
The Egyptian cemetery examples are usually in less fine textiles than silk, and are typically roundels or other simple shapes with a border and a scene inside. This style of design seems not dissimilar to mentions and the few survivals of religious embroidery from the West many centuries later. Some Western embroidery was imported, other pieces no doubt done locally on imported silk, though other materials were used. The only survival of such work on the largest scale, the enormous Bayeux Tapestry (incomplete at 0.5 by 68.38 metres or 1.6 by 224.3 ft) is wool embroidered on a plain linen background, and not technically a tapestry at all. However smaller scale figurative hangings and clothes in silk are mentioned.[29]
Decline
In 1147, during the
See also
- Byzantine art
- Byzantine dress
- Coptic textiles
- Persian embroidery
- Sampul tapestry
- Sichuan embroidery
- Sogdian textiles
Notes
- ^ a b Laiou, Angeliki. "Exchange and Trade Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine". In Laiou (2002), p. 703
- ^ a b Schoeser (2007), p. 27
- ^ Wild, John Peter. "The eastern Mediterranean 323 BC–AD 350." In Jenkins (2003), p. 108.
- ^ a b c d Howard, Michael C., Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies, the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel, McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 133.
- ^ Liu, Xinru, "The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia", in Michael Adas (ed), Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History, ed. Michael Adas, American Historical Association, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, p. 168.
- ISBN 0-520-03765-0.
- ISBN 978-0-674-03519-5, pp 168-169.
- ^ a b Hirth, Friedrich (2000) [1885]. Jerome S. Arkenberg (ed.). "East Asian History Sourcebook: Chinese Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E. - 1643 C.E." Fordham.edu. Fordham University. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
- ^ Yule, Henry (1915). Henri Cordier (ed.), Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol I: Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse Between China and the Western Nations Previous to the Discovery of the Cape Route. London: Hakluyt Society. Accessed 22 September 2016, pp 29-31; see also footnote #4 on p. 29; footnote #2 on p. 30; and footnote #3 on page 31.
- ^ Henry Yule expressed some amazement that even the name of the Byzantine negotiator "Yenyo" (i.e. the patrician Ioannes Petzigaudias) was mentioned in Chinese sources, an envoy who was unnamed in Edward Gibbon's account of the man sent to Damascus to hold a parley with the Umayyads, followed a few years later by the increase of tributary demands on the Byzantines; see Yule, Henry (1915). Henri Cordier (ed.), Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol I: Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse Between China and the Western Nations Previous to the Discovery of the Cape Route. London: Hakluyt Society. Accessed 22 September 2016, pp 48–49; and for the brief summary of Edward Gibbon's account, see also footnote #1 on p. 49.
- ^ a b Wild, John Peter. "The later Roman and early Byzantine East, AD 300–1000." In Jenkins (2003), pp. 148–149
- ^ a b Muthesius, Anna. "Essential Processes, Looms, and Technical Aspects of the Production of Silk Textiles Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine". In Laiou (2002), pp. 152–154.
- ^ Muthesius, "Essential Processes, Looms, and Technical Aspects...", pp. 158–160.
- ^ Muthesius, Anna, "Silk in the Medieval World". In Jenkins (2003), p. 344.
- ^ a b Wild, John Peter. "The later Roman and early Byzantine East, AD 300–1000." In Jenkins (2003), p. 151
- ^ Hoffman, p. 318
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary Online "samite" (subscription required), accessed 30 December 2010
- ^ Monnas (2008), p. 297.
- ^ Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World", p. 343.
- ^ Burnham (1980), p. 180.
- ^ a b Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World", p. 326.
- ^ Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World", p. 327.
- ^ Dodwell, 130
- ^ Dodwell, 129-130
- ^ Dodwell, 150-157
- ^ Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World", pp. 350-351.
- ^ Dodwell, 166-169
- ^ Oration I; Online translation from earlychristianwritings.com. The Egyptian panels are normally in wool, cotton or linen; they are embroidered, but some at least of the Amasian examples seem to be woven tapestry, of which very few examples survive from the 1st millennium.
- ^ Dodwell, 128-145; It is rather common in this area for "tapestry" to be used very loosely, as Dodwell 133. The 6th century wool and linen Hestia Tapestry is perhaps the only large Byzantine woven tapestry to survive from before 1000.
- ^ Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World", p. 331.
References
- Burnham, Dorothy K. (1980) Warp and Weft, A Textile Terminology, Royal Ontario Museum, ISBN 0-88854-256-9.
- Dodwell, C.R. (1982) Anglo-Saxon Art, A New Perspective, Manchester UP, ISBN 0-7190-0926-X(US edn. Cornell, 1985)
- Feltham, Heleanor B. (2009) Justinian and the International Silk Trade, in: Sino-Platonic Papers, No.: 194 (2009).
- Hoffman, Eva R. (2007): Pathways of Portability: Islamic and Christian Interchange from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, in: Hoffman, Eva R. (ed.): Late Antique and Medieval Art of the Mediterranean World, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4051-2071-5
- Jenkins, David, ed. (2003) The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-34107-8.
- Mannas, Lisa (2008) Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Northern and Italian Paintings 1300–1550, Appendix I:III "Medieval Silk Fabric Types and Weaves", Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-11117-0
- Laiou, Angeliki E., ed. (2002), The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century Archived 2012-02-18 at the Wayback Machine, Dumbarton Oaks.
- Schoeser, Mary. (2007) Silk, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-11741-8.
External links
- The glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Byzantine silk