Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:00 AM

Morning Modelbuch (11/23/2018)

One of the things I find most exciting about modelbucher is that the patterns are used and reused and adapted from the minute they were published until the present. The frustrating thing about that, however, is it means the patterns cannot be used to conclusively date an object. This linen shirt from the MFA in Boston has an S and fret design that is similar to one that shows up in the earliest Modelbuch like Schonsperger and Quentel in 1525, 1527, and 1529. The same plates are in Vorsterman in 1527, which makes sense because it is a crib of Quentel, but then there’s the fact that it’s in the 1544 version of Quentel. Then to completely confuse things they also show up in Matteo Pagano into the 1580’s. The MFA has the shirt listed as 16-17th century, and it could be anywhere in there because of the other techniques used on it, how the patterns were adapted, and the sheer dispersion of the patterns. Then you add the continued republication of the books, the patterns turning up in samplers, the republication into the 19th century, etc, and it’s easy to see why the patterns can’t date a thing. Again, frustrating, but a tribute to just how useful the patterns are.

https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/cutwork-shirt-lace-67054 “Heavy linen with bands of cut-work and punto reale in design of interweaving diagonal lines along sleeves and across shoulders. Punto avorio used for joining seams. Narrow bobbin lace edges the neck.”

_Eyn new kunstlichboich_ Peter Quentel (the 1544 edition) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/681376