Arrayed in Splendour: Art, Fashion, and Textiles in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Precious textiles, fabrics, embroideries, and tapestries played an important role in medieval and early modern cultures of representation. Reasons for such a high esteem of textile arts are not only the enormous material value of gold and silk, which had to be imported from distant regions, but also the extremely complex and time-consuming production conditions, including a level of technical expertise that was present only in a few highly specialized centers. In stark contrast to the medieval and early modern reception, it was only in recent years, that in art history the narrow view of the textile arts as an applied art and therefore a low one has undergone a fundamental shift. The aim of this volume is to give an insight in the current state of research on the topic. Ranging from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, the essays of leading scholars in the field offer a window into the complexity of the textile arts, including as regards the medium itself: from the overpowering splendor of liturgical and princely garments and the luxurious fabrics used for them in the Middle Ages and early modern period to the visual world of monumental room decorations in the form of tapestries.