| | "Four
Seasons" Shawl, mid-19th century
French or Scottish
Jacquard-woven
wool and silk; 74 1/2 x 72 1/4 in. (189.2 x 183.5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York
Gift of Mrs. Edwin E. Butler, in memory of her father, Dudley
B. Fuller, 1926 (26.179) | | Madame
Jacques-Louis Leblanc, née
Françoise Poncelle |
 | A
shawl was a required fashion accessory during much of the nineteenth century.
In the early 1800s, long, rectangular, stole-like examples, handwoven in India
with boteh (pine cone) or paisley patterns on the end panels, were coveted
for use with Empire-style dresses. This type was followed by the square shawl
and then, with the introduction of wider skirts, by "plaids"—a term used
not to describe the pattern but to connote a very large and long shawl, usually
ten feet by five feet. Stylistically, this shawl demonstrates both a "four seasons"
layout (in which the ground color is different in each of the quadrants) and an
organization à la pivot, in which the vegetative decoration swirls
around a central point.
Back |
|
