Opus Anglicanum Weekend - Part 2!
On Saturday morning it was pouring rain so I took the underground to the V&A to see the exhibition with alert eyes and fresh mind.
The exhibition is wonderful...truly amazing and, as an embroiderer, humbling. We all strive to create beautiful work of the highest quality, but this level of skill is truly unbelievable. I had purchased a small magnifying eye glass so I would be able to see the piece up close. Some of the silk split stitch embroidery was so fine I could barely discern the individual threads or stitches even with magnification; the expressions on the faces were so life like; the goldwork so delicate and perfectly executed.At lunch time I met one of my students from the Trevelyon's Cap course who had come to London for the exhibition and the lecture on Saturday afternoon. We had a wonderful time talking about embroidery and life in general until it was time to go upstairs to the theatre for the lecture entitled "Opus Anglicanum Unpicked".
The lecture, complete with movie screen sized images, examined the materials, techniques and design; the patrons and artists involved; and the extraordinary images depicted on them. Exhibition curator Glyn Davies spoke on Curating the Garden of Delights – the Wonder of English Medieval Embroidery, V&A course director Sally Dormer, spoke on Sacred Stories: The Iconography of Opus Anglicanum and former Senior Curator of Textiles for the V & A, Jennifer Wearden, on Opus Anglicanum: materials and techniques.It was fascinating to hear about the negotiation process that makes it possible to borrow pieces from diverse collections for this exhibition. Lighting and displaying the pieces was also discussed. All of us were impressed with the metal forms created by a special team to display the copes without drapes or folds so all the the embroidery could be seen.
The images of Opus Anglicanum and what their meanings were to contemporaries was discussed in detail, with connections between images on embroidered textiles and manuscripts of the period being made. Embroidery was not created in an artistic void just as it isn't now.
There was then a thorough and delightful lecture on the materials and techniques. I didn't know - before the lecture - that all the gold thread created in England during the period of Opus Anglicanum would have come from coins or other gold objects that had been acquired and melted down as there were no gold mines in England at that time. Imagine the long process required to make a piece of gold thread!For those of you who cannot come to London, the exhibition catalogue is so much more than photos and descriptions of the pieces. There are chapters that cover much of the material from the lecture. If you search online, you can easily find videos about how to do underside couching and high quality images of the work itself.What I came away with, after a weekend of Opus Anglicanum, is wonder at the ability of people in 1250 to create these masterpieces. They were truly inspired. And so am I!