On 22 Jan 2009 (12:56:33 -0800) Tamara wrote: >...it looks, like there's not a trace of bobbin lace in Venice before 1525. >And yet, they were selling it [11] yrs later... So, did it spring from the >sea, in its finished perfection, like Venus herself? None of the slow >gestation (development) period which could have been expected?
One theory I keep coming back to is that the Venetians acquired their needlelace from the Greek islanders, who still maintain a tradition of needlelace very similar to the earliest Venetian lace. The Venetians' presence on the Greek islands was at its peak at that time, and since they were (among other things) defending the Western Mediterranean from the Ottoman Turks by holding the islands 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. 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. 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 atta cking Constantinople). I find it hard to believe that the Venetians could have introduced a form of needlework they were only just developing into a hostile society with such success that it was preserved in essentially the same form for hundreds of years, as the lace of the Greek islands has endured. Much more likely that the ever-curious Venetians noticed a needlecraft new to them, borrowed it, and developed it in new and different ways. 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. Also, the Venetians (and other Italians, once they joined in the fun) may be responsible for linking together bobbin and needlelace, which have evolved in parallel (at least in terms of their designs and general application) through many centuries. If bobbin lace had remained a product of the north, while mediterranean societies concentrated on needlelace alone, we might think of them as very distinct crafts, instead of two forms of the same one. Anyway, it's a *very* interesting period to study. Sue (where the 6 inches of snow that fell on Tuesday have vanished as dew in the morning sun--quite literally!) Susan Lambiris Raleigh, NC http://home.earthlink.net/~slambiris/ - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
