Precious textiles, fabrics, embroideries, and tapestries played an important role in medieval and early modern cultures of representation. The high esteem in which the textile arts were held was not only due to the enormous material value of gold and silk, which had to be imported from distant regions, but also to the extremely complex and time-consuming production conditions which required a level of technical expertise that was present only in a few highly specialized centers.
In stark contrast to their medieval and early-modern reception, it has been only in recent years that the traditional view of the textile arts in art-historical discourse as an 'applied' art, and therefore a 'low' one, has undergone a fundamental shift. The aim of this volume is to provide insight into the current state of research on the topic. Ranging from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, this collection of essays of leading scholars in the field offers an invaluable window into the complexity of the textile arts and their medium, from the overpowering splendour of liturgical and princely garments and the luxurious fabrics used for them in the Middle Ages and early modern period, to the visual world of monumental room decorations in the form of tapestries.
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