The painted design of this Indian chintz emulates the intricate lace patterned woven silks created in Europe in the 1720s. Painted cottons inspired by the lace-patterned silks were popular in both Asia and Europe, but each region had particular preferences regarding the execution of the design. This chintz displays a delicate pattern augmented with gold leaf. Similar examples have been found in Dutch collections.
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Title:Textile Panel of Chintz
Date:18th century
Geography:Attributed to India
Medium:Cotton; printed
Dimensions:L. 26 in. (66 cm) W. 19 in. (48.3 cm)
Classification:Textiles-Painted and/or Printed
Credit Line:Gift of The United Piece Dye Works, 1936
Accession Number:36.90.121
Panel of Lace-Patterned Silk (MMA 61.80.2) and a Panel of Chintz (36.90.121)
In Le dessinateur, pour les fabriques d'etoffes d'or, d'argent et de soie, a manual for the silk designer published in 1765, one of the textile terms included is persienne. It is described as a weave structure with characteristics that correspond to those of many so-called lace pattern silks of the 1720s. The principal feature of this fabric was, according to the author, Antoine Nicolas Joubert de l'Hiberderie, the juxtaposition of two contrasting foundation weaves–a dark or boldly colored satin weave and a white plain weave–that were augmented by brocading in additional colors of silk and possibly one or more metallic threads.[1] It is unclear in Le dessinateur whether persienne was a purely technical term or whether it also described a style. In addition to the technical definition given in the 1765 publication, evidence that persienne referred to a style as well as a structure is provided by labels inscribed on the drawings of such designs dating between 1723 and 1730.[2]
The serrated leaves and rather stiff drawing of the flowers on the present silk piece (MMA 61.80.2) reflect both Ottoman and Indo-Persian floral designs. In its weave, the silk adheres to the technical definition of a persienne, while suggesting a debt to the art and architecture of the Islamic world in its use of the mihrab-shaped compartments that frame the central plant motif. So, while this distinctive type of silk, made in the weaving centers of France, England, and the Netherlands, is now referred to as "lace patterned" owing to its lacy ribbonlike motifs, the eighteenth-century term might serve just as well.
This type of vibrantly colored floral silk was used in both men's and women's fashions, including a number of men's banyans. That this textile was a product of European looms did not diminish the exotic properties that made it appropriate for leisure wear, just as the so-called bizarre silks were in earlier decades (MMA 64.35.1).
These European silks also spawned Indian chintz designs that were created both for the European market, like the panel of chinz (MMA 36.90.121), or for sale closer to the Indian subcontinent, such as a long cloth made for the Indonesian market (MMA 2011.44). The subdued monochrome palette of this chintz may have meant that it was intended for mourning wear, the colors of which gradually shifted from black to increasingly lighter shades of blue and the eventual addition of red during the period of observance.[3] European fashions in silk design changed rapidly, so it is probably safe to assume that any chintzes made to imitate popular Western patterns were produced fairly quickly so as not to be outdated before they arrived in Europe. However, these patterns might have had a longer life span in markets in the East.
Melinda Watt in [Peck 2013]
Footnotes:
1. See Leclercq, Jean-Paul. "From Threads to Pattern Composition, Technique, and Aesthetics." In A Taste for the Exotic: Foreign Influences on Early Eighteenth-Century Silk Designs, edited by Anna Jolly, pp. 139–54, 211–24. Riggisberger Berichte 14. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2007.
2. Ibid., p. 139 n. 2.
3. See Gittinger, Mattiebelle. Master Dyers to the World; Technique and Trade in Early Indian Dyed Cotton Textiles. Exh. cat. Washington, D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1982, pp. 176–77, and fig. 150, a mourning wentke in blue and black in the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands (no. 1957-400). See also Hartkamp-Jonxis, Ebeltje. Sitsen uit India/Indian Chintzes. Aspecten van de verzameling beeldhouwkunst en kunstnijverheid 5. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; Zwolle: Waanders Uitgevers, 1994, pp. 84–85, a mourning wentke in blue with silver accents; and Crill, Rosemary. Chintz: Indian Textiles for the West. London: V&A Publications, 2008, p. 103, no. 55, a wentke in black on white, also for mourning.
Count de Besselièvre, Paris; United Piece Dye Works, Lodi, NJ (until 1936; gifted to MMA)
New York. Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. "Margarita van Varick and Her World," September 17, 2009–January 3, 2010, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800," September 9, 2013–January 5, 2014, no. 47B.
Peck, Amelia, ed. Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013. no. 47B, pp. 198–99, ill. (color).
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