A revolution in colour: natural dyes and dress in Europe, c. 1400-1800

Uittreksel

"This major volume aims to re-colour the European world of dress in the period 1400-1800. New dyes created one of the most important visual experiences of the period, yet their story has been sidelined by a focus on visual experiences shaped by the high arts. This volume presents clear evidence that even the clothing of the middle classes could be much more expensive than paintings, and that coloured clothing and accessories were ubiquitous across society. Contributors shed new light on the economic, environmental and cultural dimensions of colour in dress. The range of dyes expanded considerably in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, drawing on Asian and Mediterranean knowledge, new collections of recipes, and the greater diversity of plants available through New World trade. Working creatively with organic plant, animal, and mineral materials to make colours involved considerable knowledge, pleasure and skill. The creation of colour through dyes thus reveals a whole range of global agricultural and craft technologies that can inspire future material worlds and transforms our understanding of Europe's cultural heritage." -- Provided by publisher.

Inhoud

Introduction. A revolution in colour in late medieval and early modern Europe / Maria Hayward, Giorgio Riello, and Ulinka Rublack -- Part I, The world of natural dyes -- 1. Red dyes, artists' pigments, guild regulations and Italian silks : thirteenth to sixteenth centuries / Jo Kirby, Lisa Monnas and Ina Vanden Berghe -- 2. The arrival of the crimson dyeing technique in late fourteenth-century Italy / Luca Molà -- 3. The colour of empire : cochineal and indigo in the pre-modern world / Giorgio Riello -- 4. An empire of blue : French indigo trade with the Levant in the early eighteenth century / Marguerite Martin -- Part II, Dyeing, recipes and colour making -- 5. A dyeing art : reconstructing Rosetti's Plictho / Sophie Pitman -- 6. The colourful language of dyeing black in Renaissance Europe / Sven Dupré and Natalia Ortega Saez -- 7. Dyes and dyeing in the indienne industry in the Swiss Old Confederacy / Kim Siebenhüner -- 8. Colour creation for wool fabrics in London, 1736-44 : new evidence from the Crutchley dyehouses / Anita Quye -- Part III, Colour, dress and fashion -- 9. Innovations and imitations of colour : wearing and making colour in early modern Italy / Paula Hohti -- 10. Re-colouring the Renaissance : Matthäus Schwarz of Augsburg / Ulinka Rublack -- 11. 'All visible things are distinguish'd and become desirable by their colours' : creating colour in the wardrobes of the Stuart kings, 1566-1702 / Maria Hayward -- 12. Shades of white and red : signs and symbols, power and purpose in the early modern Atlantic / Beverly Lemire.