Examples of Medieval Textile Patterns

Illustration: Jean Froissart. Coronation of Henry IV, c1470.

Truly, medieval textiles, rather than those in the style of, are not nearly as numerous as we would wish them to be. There are a number of reasons why this should be so. Apart from the obvious length of time between the medieval period and our own, there is also the fact that until recent times the idea of throwing away anything that could not be reused and recycled was not even a consideration. The same was certainly true for textiles, particularly those used domestically. 

Medieval wall hangings for example, were often used until obviously threadbare. They were then cut up into smaller segments and used for various other domestic tasks including upholstery, the better kept pieces taking a more prominent position. The original large hangings would, over the years, become increasingly smaller and smaller until they literally disintegrated. So in some ways we should be grateful that we don't have many examples as it meant that our ancestors in many ways understood the valuable lessons regarding sustainable wealth and certainly of sustainable textiles.

Illustration: Jean Froissart. Death of Evan de Foix, c1470.

To be fair, a number of good examples of medieval textile design do survive. However, a ready supply of imagery, giving a plethora of textile pattern work, or at least a strong indication as to how much of the rich textile design work was available and how it looked, both as a design and within a setting, can be seen through the use of illustrations in medieval manuscripts. Many contain interior scenes, admittedly of a wealthy kind, often at Court, but as much of the medieval textile pattern work was produced for this particular social class, that is where we must look for the finest in textile work produced during this era.

Many medieval pattern ideas and influences can be traced to previous sources, whether classical, Byzantine or Islamic. However, others are very much rooted in the medieval world of Europe with its crests and coats of arms being particularly important in the art of underlining and reiterating power within the framework of allegiance that formed such an important network across Europe, long before the days of the nation state.

Illustration: Jean Froissart. The King of Hungary in Council with his Lords and those of France, c1470.

Another important element and some would say the preeminent one, was nature. The often localised natural world filtered through to all aspects of the medieval world and certainly through that of its decorative arts. The first four illustrations for this article are taken from the fourteenth century work of Jean Froissart. They show a variety of large textile pieces that were very often used as a means of ceremonial theatricality, rather than private domesticity. However, we must remember that the medieval Court was very often a place of public ceremony and affirmation of allegiance, with little in the way of privacy. 

Although Froissart reproduced a number of different textile pattern pieces for his illustrations, I have chosen four pieces with pattern work that are closely aligned with each other. All the pieces have singular motifs as their main ingredient, often with an alternate colour scheme in order to vary the pattern. The bunches of flowers, which were always portrayed as growing out of the ground, rather than in a vase, were a popular theme in medieval textile work and turned up frequently in tapestry work, particularly to fill in large empty areas of composition. These proved so successful and so enduring that they were maintained throughout the medieval period and into the Renaissance led classically derived period. 

 Illustration: Jean Froissart. The Ransom paid to Bajazet for the Count de Nevers, etc, c1470.

Interestingly, these self-same motifs were again revived by Victorian medievalists such as William Morris. The last illustration in this article shows an early Morris textile piece from the 1860s. Daisy shows a similar penchant for the use of the flower bunch motif. He also used alternate colours and flower types to vary the pattern work. It is known that Morris derived this pattern scheme from tapestry work that was produced later than the medieval period. However, the same techniques, as stated earlier, were used long after the medieval period had ended.

It is interesting to see the same motif styles being used after Morris and can probably be seen, at least in some context, within pattern work of our own contemporary era. Rather than believing that we are merely indulging in a constant journey of reimagining the past through textiles, I would like to think more in the vein of themes portrayed in the medieval world being just as relevant and dynamic to succeeding generations as they were to the originals. Morris pattern work for example, is not a pastiche of the medieval; he merely used the original theme as a starting point. However, in many respects he came from the same belief system as the medieval designer, portraying the immediate and localised natural world around them, and in that respect, the connection between the medieval, Victorian and contemporary world, can certainly find common ground.

 Illustration: William Morris. Daisy textile design, 1864.

Medieval pattern work should not, ideally, be contained within its time frame. It has the capacity to appeal to later generations, as it clearly did through its pattern longevity. This decorative work was vibrant, colourful and imaginative. It appealed to our ancestors who used it both publicly and privately, domestically and within a religious context. It was one of the most important elements of medieval decorative life and was served by a huge industry. It has only lost its place through an obvious lack of large scale survival, compared to architectural remains, textile remains are woefully inadequate. There has also been the fairly recent movement away from highlighting craft-based disciplines, which are often seen as female-based and therefore both secondary and amateur, towards architecture which is often seen as male-based and therefore professional. Although this is perhaps an over simplification, many will be aware of the emphasis placed on different areas of the creative medieval world by the contemporary one. But that is a discussion for another day.

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How the Victorians Portrayed the Medieval World

 Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. The Attainment tapestry design.

One of the most popular style projections of the Victorians, particularly in Britain, was that of the medieval. Although the Gothic Revivals main period was between about 1840 and 1870, re-enactments and reinterpretations were still proving popular with both artists and designers, as well as the general public, right up until the end of the century and indeed beyond.

How the Victorians visually interpreted the medieval world is an interesting one as it was often portrayed in textile formats, particularly within the medium of tapestry. Tapestry was seen by many of those fascinated with all things medieval, as being a craft that was steeped in the traditions of this early period and one that had a natural affinity to the era. Although many original medieval tapestries were often actually embroideries rather than woven tapestries, it mattered little to the average Victorian with their propensity to project their needs and wants onto past cultural periods, ignoring the areas that might well have troubled them and their interpretations. We do the same today and often reflect our own imaginings and concerns onto periods that would have had difficulty recognising our versions of their worlds.

Although the Victorian interpretation of the medieval was an obvious nineteenth century construct, it is often the same one that we ourselves popularly project on to that medieval world and sometimes for similar reasons. Many of us like to imagine living in a historical period, whether it be medieval, Elizabethan, Regency and so on. The premise is always that we would live in a large house and have a plentiful wardrobe of fine clothes. Most of us of course come from long generations of subsistence living peasantry and life for our ancestors was far from those imagined lifestyles. However, that is part of the fascination in projected interpretations of the past. They are no more real than our projections of the future, but they do allow us to daydream, fantasise and perhaps place ourselves, if only for a moment, beyond the normal and unimaginative constraints of contemporary everyday life, just as it did for the Victorian with their dreams of chivalry, romance and contented peasantry.

Illustration: Norwegian tapestry design, 12th century.

The Victorian practical reinterpretation of the medieval is even more interesting and can be seen through some of the examples shown in this article. There are two original medieval tapestry designs, which might well be embroidered, but can still be loosely classed as tapestries for this article, as they were classed as such in the nineteenth century. One is Norwegian and from the twelfth century, the other German and from the thirteenth century. Both show not only a lack of perspective, but more interestingly, a lack of interest in perspective. It is often a left over prejudice from the eighteenth century to infer that the medieval period forgot the classical ideals of proportion, perspective and realism, and had to resort to childlike interpretations of the world around them. Their work was often seen as crude and barbaric, and the decorative and artistic work of the period as one which cried out for the classical reawakening of the renaissance. However, for those living in the medieval world, as opposed to the eighteenth century, they would have seen the interpretation of the world on tapestry for example, as merely a stylised reflection of the world around them. It was never meant that it should be perceived as a duplicate, a copy of the real world, which they would have seen as a pointless exercise, which indeed it is.

Looking at the nineteenth century Edward Burne-Jones tapestry interpretation of the medieval world, it is interesting to note that the artist was prepared to use all of the classically derived tricks of proportion, perspective and realism to portray the world of the medieval, and none of the stylised reflections of the world as seen by the medieval creative mind. In many ways the Burne-Jones interpretation shows us how hard it was for generations of the post-renaissance period to throw away the tools of classicism no matter how hard they may have wanted to shift the emphasis away from the classical to the medieval world. Many Victorians were quite strident in their loathing of what they saw as the interruption of the creative pathway of art and decoration from the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century. Many critics wished to see the nineteenth century equivalent of art and decoration as being interpreted as a continuation from the fifteenth century, leaving out the intervening classically dominated centuries, which were often seen by the English in particular as a cultural invasion from Europe that bore no affinity with the indigenous craft and decorative styles of England. That large sections of medieval creativity were also part of the on-going succession of cultural and creative invasions from Europe predictably passed them by.

Illustration: German tapestry design, 13th century.

At any rate, it is interesting to see that although the Victorians tried to re-connect with a medieval past, the intervening centuries were too wide a chasm to really bridge effectively and certainly creatively. The Victorian interpretation of the medieval world was exactly that, an interpretation. While the Gothic Revival certainly has merit as a creative movement, its projection of the medieval world was largely a false one whether culturally or creatively. Generations of classical indoctrination had led to an increasingly sterile creative world and the idea of any other viewpoint but the classical was one that was a hurdle too far for most, although to be fair, not all.

As far as the practical interpretation of the medieval world was concerned, it wasn't until the dawn of the twentieth century that the classical ideals of proportion, perspective and realism could start to be truly abandoned on a large scale or at least uncoupled from the creative world. It could be said that with the introduction of various new perspectives in the world of fine art a reconnection with the practical medieval reflection of the world, could at last be attempted.

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