Sat Sep 1, 2018 08:16 AM

Morning Modelbuch (9/1/2018)

The Met put on a fascinating exhibition few years ago, “Fashion and Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520-1620.”. There wasn’t an exhibition catalog book published, but there was an art bulletin published in 2015. Printed copies sold out, but you can download a PDF or read it online on their website. (As you can also read most of their publications back to 1964.) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Fashion_and_Virtue_Textile_Patterns_and_the_Print_Revolution_1520_1620?Tag=&title=Fashionandvirtue&author=&pt={05598FA1-8F02-4579-A088-9F7BC7165316}&tc=0&dept=0&fmt=0

The whole exhibition makes me giddy, but there’s a pretty great look at one of the forerunners of the modelbuch, a series of prints of interlacing designs called fantasie dei vinci. I’m interested in the patterns themselves because of a dress I want to make that features the pattern (I think I’ll talk about that tomorrow,) but what makes these prints so interesting is that they were printed in the 1490’s in Milan and there was a series of 6 related ones. They were so popular that Durer recarved them so he could print them and make them more available. Only one complete copy of all 6 exists, in the Biblioteca Ambrisiana in Milan, but individual prints are found in other collections. The Met displayed all 6 as part of Fashion and Virtue as well as the woodblock of the 5th knot carved by Durer.

Interesting blog post on the prints with good pictures of that part of the exhibition and a link to the Mets copy of the fifth knot print.

https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2015/albrecht-durer-the-fifth-knot

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/460251