On Jan 22, 2009, at 23:48, Susan Lambiris wrote:
[...] one might imagine that decorating oneself with a distinctively
Greek might have been a fashionable way to call attention to oneself
in the Venice of that time.
One might imagine, but...
Not all of the Venetian laws (and traditions) in respect to clothes
were prohibitive (ie: "don't wear this"); quite a few were prescriptive
(ie: "wear that"). And all of them were quite scathing when it came to
"foreign" clothes. The excess fabric used in sleeves of shirts was
criticised because it was "French" (even though, actually, the fashion
came from Germany. But Germany was -- sometimes -- an ally. France was
-- always -- an enemy). Villains in paintings were shown as wearing
"foreign" clothes.
Those of the Venetians who spent some time on the "Terrafirma" (by
which the good folk of the City understood *everything* outside the
city proper even something as close as Vicenza, now a couple of train
stops away) had a permission to relax the city rues somewhat. Like: the
"toga" didn't have to reach the ground; it could be a couple of inches
shorter. Or, if they went, cap-in-hand to Rome, hoping for help, they
might temper their clothes to something less "in your face". But, the
folk in the City itself?
Chances of the upperclass Venetians thinking it was clever to show
oneself in foreign clothing was exactly nil. They were the ones who
travelled (and who might have seen "novelties" outside the City) but
they were also the ones who were fiercely traditional and, almost
arrogantly, proud of being Venetians. Even as the rest of Italy laughed
into their (huge and perfectly legal <g>) sleeves at their pretensions,
the Venetians sneered at everything "not Venetian".
The similarities between the Venetian and the Greek needlelaces could
be explained by either a) coincidence (as the almost simultaneous
appearance of bobbin lace in Venice and Antwerp has been explained by
some historians) or, b) copying, but in the opposite direction. Ie, the
Greeks might have copied the wear of the Venetian patrician merchants,
thinking it was "classy" (which Greek islands, *specifically*, did you
have in mind as being under Venice's control?).
Of course, it could also be argued that the Venetians introduced
needlelace to the Greek islands, but I find that harder to believe,
given that the Greeks have always been very tenacious of their own
traditions and very unwilling to adopt new customs.
Not half as stuck on themselves as the Venetians of that period were
though :) Also, traditions tend to linger longer in rural areas than
they do in the cities; that would account for why some of those
techniques are still surviving in today's Greece but have been ditched
by Venice a good while since.
Also, they particularly despised their Venetian occupiers, if
anything rather more than they hated the Turks (the Turks, after all,
hadn't pretended to be fellow-Christians before attacking
Constantinople).
If you're talking about Cyprus... The Greeks there (escapees from the
Turkish takeover of Constantinople and the surrounding areas, mostly)
did intermarry -- some -- with the Venetians but not with the Turks.
Venice had, intermittently, made its peace with Turkey (as mercantile
profits dictated) but was never the "best buddy" of it. Vis pretending
to be fellow Christians... The rift between the Roman Catholics (like
Venice) and the Orthodox (like Greeks and Cypriots and Russians) never
*quite* healed; certainly, it was still a very big deal in the
Reneissance.
I suspect they did the same thing with bobbin lace, only in this case
their inspiration came from the Low Countries, probably Antwerp, where
it seems likely early bobbin lace was in the process of evolving from
passementerie. The Antwerp artisans did not have a tradition of
publishing their patterns, however (possibly because these were
commercial products, not something done at home) which may be why the
Venetian pattern books are the oldest we have.
That Antwerp didn't publish its patterns for protectionist reasons is a
likely possibility. But, if lace was was a commercial product -- and
earlier than in Venice, as you suggest -- then how come it had been
introduced to "Germany" (or, what is now Switzerland) by the merchants
of "Venice and Italy" (as specifically stated by RM), not those of the
Netherlands? After all, Antwerp was geographically closer than Venice
and the merchants there were as powerful and enterprising as those of
Venice... Are you suggesting that Antwerp sold its lace to the Venetian
merchants, so that they could take their cut by reselling it in
Germany?
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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