Mise-en-carte and Sample for Velours Miniature with Bundles of Flowers and Leaves over a Pattern of Zigzagging Lines
Anonymous, French, 18th century French
Not on view
Mise-en-carte for "velours miniature" (a), a type of velvet that was often decorated with sewing points and repetitive small ornaments with contrasting colors, which was particularly fashionable towards the end of the 18th century and during the reign of Louis XVI, often decorated with colorful garlands of flowers and leaves, as well as other naturalistic motifs and garden trophies. This design is made up of a pattern with horizontal zig-zagging lines, rendered with hot-pink, pink and white dots, over which can be distinguished circular shapes bordered with thorn offsetts that contain small bundles with two stylized flowers and branches with leaves, all outlined with pink and rendered with hot-pink.
Placed to the right of the mise-en-carte is a fabric sample (b) with a fragment of what would have been the finished textile: a hot-pink velvet containing the pattern of zigzagging lines and bundles of flowers and leaves, all executed through the use of volume in the textile, rather than using different colors.
