Fresh off the Press: Color Power!

Guest-edited by Mary Dusenbury, volume 47 celebrates the art and science of color in textiles. The ten essays in this volume were contributed by scholars from a range of academic disciplines and research interests. Read the list of essays in this volume.

In this illustrated volume, authors take advantage of recent breakthroughs in dye analysis to explore questions of provenance, trade relations, social and political mores, and other contextual questions through the lens of color studies.

Volume cover. (photo credits: The Textile Museum Journal)

The essay Color Power: Contributions of Science and Technology to the Study of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century 'Vine-Scroll' Carpets presents state-of-the-art research focused on the production and consumption of Persian carpets produced between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Through the study of collections in Portugal and the United States, it looks at the transformation of the Iranian carpet industry in response to the demands and competitiveness of the growing international market and how, when, and where this occurred.

Large-scale vine-scroll carpet with central void, clouds, and sickle-leaf (Large Esfahan Herat), Iran, mid-17th century. 1349 × 432 cm (44 1⁄4 × 14 in.) Former Corcoran Gallery of Art 26.277. (Photo credits: Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar).

Based on an interdisciplinary approach involving art history, history, and conservation science and by bringing together the complex political, economic, and cultural backgrounds that set the stage for major innovations in carpet production, this study identified the devel- opment of a new carpet type and its variations through a comprehensive survey of fifty-nine selected carpets. Technical and material analysis, especially of dyes, achieved a more detailed understanding of the origin and context of production and local manufacturing processes. Meanwhile, the carpet designs and their depictions in European paintings were traced to develop a chronology for the evolution of production. In this paper, in addition to presenting general results of this combined methodology, a group of four carpets are presented as case studies that offer insights into the evolution of the vine-scroll type and new interpretations on the roles of the producer and consumer between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Find more on this matter here.

This essay discusses the importance multidisciplinary methods for providing answers to the study of historical textiles in light of fruitful collaborations between museum and academic institutions worldwide, among them Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (USA), Center for Humanities at NOVA University of Lisbon (CHAM, NOVA-FCSH), José de Figueiredo Laboratory from Directorate General for Cultural Heritage (PT), The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, The National Gallery of Art (USA), National Museum of Ancient Art and Nacional Museum Machado de Castro (PT).

What a WONDERFUL ride!

It was a pleasure and a tremendous gift, thank you all!