Remaking the Renaissance

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Dakota Mace/courtesy Center for Design andMaterial Culture.

Dr. Sophie Pitman (left) examining a chasuble from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection with doctoral candidate Maeve Hogan.

Dr. Sophie Pitman (left) examining achasuble from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection with doctoral candidate Maeve Hogan.

The exuberance of Renaissance textiles has come down to us from paintings of Queen Elizabeth I and her court — and we’re most familiar with the styles from contemporary productions of Shakespeare. But what was the cloth and clothing of the era really like? “Remaking the Renaissance” reexamines the time through historic fiber fragments and new recreations. At 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 22, Cleveland Museum of Art conservator Sarah Scaturro presents the 2024 Ruth Ketterer Harris Lecture on professionalization in textile conservation, followed by an exhibit reception at 6:30 p.m.

media release: The Center for Design and Material Culture (CDMC) is thrilled to announce the opening of Remaking the Renaissance from February 7–May 19, 2024 in the Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery. Offering a fresh take on this iconic period of textile and fashion history, Remaking the Renaissance recontextualizes the way we think about and see the cloth and clothing of the early modern world. Through historic fragments and contemporary recreations, this exhibition invites visitors to investigate textile-making practices of the Renaissance and discover what can be learned from research, conservation, and making.

Join us in celebrating the opening of Remaking the Renaissance at 6:30 pm on Feb. 22. This public reception will start immediately following the 2024 Ruth Ketterer Harris Lecture and will include light refreshments.

Very few Renaissance textiles survive. The materials needed to create these objects were sourced globally and often costly to acquire. One garment might be refashioned into a new garment, resold, gifted, or even cut up, melted down, or used for rags. In museums across the world, tiny fragments of textiles that are now 500 years old challenge and complicate our understanding of the Renaissance. In order to examine this contextual and material loss, Remaking the Renaissance draws on the significant textile holdings of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection (HLATC) and new works from UW researchers, as well as key loans from across UW campus and from the European Research Council-funded Refashioning the Renaissance project.

Through the study of historic textiles, books of secrets, and other primary sources, curator Dr. Sophie Pitman collaborates with other researchers and makers to uncover lost knowledge through the process of making. By studying the fragments of fabric that have survived from the Renaissance, Dr. Pitman, who is the Pleasant Rowland Textile Specialist and Research Director in the CDMC, analyzed every part of the textile making process from the 1500's and reimagined what that might look like today.

“The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection is such a rich resource; it contains a breadth of textiles that show the diversity, skills, and creativity of textile makers in this period of history,” Pitman said. ”Most of these textiles have changed in the 500 years since they were first made, and so to understand them, we need to be mindful of the ways that dyes fade and fibers deteriorate over time. Conservation and stabilization work is sometimes necessary to preserve objects, and it also prompts research into the material past. This exhibition does not try to conceal the fragility of old textiles or hide the important work of conservators. Instead it celebrates the skills and findings of those who restore or reconstruct objects.”

This exhibition shows how material loss and survival bias can be overcome through conservation, scientific testing, hands-on experimentation, and material and digital reconstructions. “Remaking the Renaissance is an exciting exhibit because not only will it illuminate the technical intricacies and cultural meaning of these stunning Renaissance textiles, but also shares how we know what we know,” says Prof. Marina Moskowitz, Lynn and Gary Mecklenburg Chair in Textiles, Material Culture, and Design. She continued, “Present-day innovations in the practice of conservation and historical research can bring to light the historical innovations of textile-making in the 15th through 17th centuries. We can learn more about materials, the makers’ skill, and he resulting uses of this beautiful fabric, and understand its place in the societies, cultures, and economies of the past.”

Tarnished, shattered, faded and fragile, the survival of these objects testifies to the immense value of textiles in the premodern world, and broadens our understanding of the materials, designs, and uses of textiles in the Renaissance. They also pose a challenge to researchers — how can we overcome this material loss, and what questions will these materials answer?

Remaking the Renaissance was developed with generous support from the Anonymous Fund and Susan J. and Harry C. Engstrom in celebration of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection’s 50th Anniversary. To learn more about the exhibit and upcoming related programs, visit cdmc.wisc.edu or sign up to receive the latest gallery news and events by email.