Due to a beneficiant donation from benefactor Leslie Durst, we now have acquired
an beautiful seventeenth-century embroidery with a stunning historical past of secret
Catholic devotion. This small panel embodies entwined tales of non secular
religion, expert workmanship, and the mythology of a doomed Queen. Senior Curator
of Historic Textiles Helen Wyld reveals its story.
Rendered with astonishing ability, the embroidery’s central picture is created solely in colored silks, that are remarkably properly preserved. It exhibits Christ crucified on Golgotha, with the 2 thieves both aspect of him. Above is a dramatic sky; beneath are his discarded garments, and the instruments used to torture him.
Needle portray
Zooming in on Christ’s face, the blood flowing from his wounds, and the delicately described panorama, the scene is described in astonishing element with silk stitches even following the course of leaves of grass. This system, standard within the early seventeenth century, was generally often called ‘peinture à l’aiguille’ or ‘needle portray’, as a result of the stitches resemble brush strokes.
Surrounding this central scene is a border richly adorned with gold thread and sequins, and symbolic phrases and photos. The textile, which measures solely 30 x 27 cm, was most likely made in an expert workshop within the Low International locations (current day Belgium), probably a spiritual basis. Only a few objects of this sort and high quality survive, nonetheless much less in British collections.
Devotion
What
was this stunning textile used for? An outdated label described it as a bible
cowl, however this appears unlikely. Partly due to its form: wider and squarer
than the usual guide sizes on the time. However extra importantly, resulting from its
imagery, which means that it was designed to be used in non-public devotion.
The picture of Christ is one among intense struggling, supposed to permit contemplation of the saviour’s sacrifice. The border comprises a Latin prayer describing every stage of Christ’s Ardour – the times main as much as and together with his crucifixion – with accompanying photos. The textile subsequently acted as an assist to prayer. It was frequent for small devotional embroideries to be owned by high-status Catholics within the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For instance, Margaret of Austria owned a number of such photos, some saved in velvet instances. However who did our textile belong to?
Untangling the Story
When the textile appeared at public sale in 2021, it was accompanied by an early twentieth century label saying that it had been made by Mary, Queen of Scots. At Nationwide Museums Scotland, we encounter a number of objects with claimed hyperlinks to Mary Stuart, and it’s all the time value questioning their origins. On this case, the story was simply discounted: the picture of Christ is predicated on a print after Flemish artist Marten de Vos, dated to c. 1598, a decade after Mary’s demise. It was additionally clear that this textile was made by an embroiderer way more expert than the Scottish Queen, whose surviving works are all executed in easy tent sew. Nonetheless, the true historical past of this textile is equally intriguing.
Elizabeth Stuart
Till 2021, the textile was at Greystoke Citadel, a residence of the Howard household, Earls of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk, essentially the most outstanding Catholic household in Britain. It’s stitched (sure, stitched!) to an oak panel. An inscription on the again is signed by one Charles Howard of Greystoke (1630-1713), claiming that it was made by Mary, Queen of Scots, and that it had been given “by her mom to my mom”.
Charles Howard was a youthful son of Henry Howard, fifteenth Earl of Arundel. His mom was Elizabeth Stuart, Countess of Arundel (1610-1674), daughter of a Scottish nobleman, Esmé Stuart, third Duke of Lennox. He was one other outstanding Catholic, who was briefly first in line to the Scottish throne. Elizabeth’s mom was Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton (c. 1592-1637), who was additionally Catholic. Though the hyperlink Charles claims to Mary Stuart is unfaithful, the textile might very plausibly have belonged to his mom, Elizabeth Stuart, and to her mom, Katherine Clifton.
Hidden Religion
Regardless of
the aristocratic standing of those early house owners of the textile, its survival
represents a fortunate escape. After the Reformation of the sixteenth century,
Protestantism turned the state faith in each England and Scotland. Objects
of Catholic worship had been confiscated and destroyed. Devotional photos,
particularly when adorned with wealthy supplies comparable to silk and gold, had been seen as
particularly harmful, as they had been the topic of what Protestants condemned as
idolatrous worship. Adherence to Catholicism – often called ‘recusancy’ as a result of it
concerned recusing oneself from the official church – itself turned a harmful
exercise.
Elizabeth’s
father, the Duke of Lennox, was imprisoned for his religion, and Katherine Clifton
was excommunicated from the Church of Scotland. Quite a few members of the Howard
household had been additionally imprisoned, they usually weren’t allowed to make use of their title of
Dukes of Norfolk.
An additional part of iconoclasm throughout the Civil Conflict of the 1640s noticed many extra artistic endeavors destroyed, private and non-private, and Catholics had been as soon as once more in peril. However Catholics continued to worship, usually retaining devotional objects hidden in hid chapels. As each Royalists and Catholics, the Howards themselves had their estates confiscated right now. We could by no means know the early historical past of our embroidered crucifixion, nevertheless it might properly have been utilized in secret Catholic devotion. And it will need to have been carefully guarded to outlive this turbulent interval.
The Delusion of Mary Queen
of Scots
The later historical past of the textile sheds additional mild on the function of Mary, Queen of Scots within the creation of household mythologies. The observe by Charles Howard on the reverse was most likely written within the late seventeenth or early 18th century. It’s important {that a} Catholic household wished to emphasize their hyperlink to Mary, a Catholic monarch, right now. The Revolution of 1689 had seen James II, a Catholic monarch and Mary’s great-grandson, ousted as king of England, Scotland and Eire. And in 1707, the Union of the English and Scottish parliaments befell. On this interval the exiled Stuarts – descendants of Mary, Queen of Scots – turned a spotlight for each Catholic and anti-Union feeling. Charles Howard’s invented hyperlink with Mary was subsequently a political assertion.
Later
members of the family had been eager to emphasize the connection too. In 1923, Mabel Howard,
who then lived at Greystoke, wrote an article about the home together with
further particulars in regards to the embroidery. It was most likely right now that it
was framed and displayed with the label repeating the Mary Queen of Scots
story.
Our preliminary analysis on this stunning textile has debunked one fantasy however revealed a much more complicated story of household loyalty, mythology and religion. Analysis is ongoing to ascertain the early historical past of the textile, and it’s present process conservation remedy forward of its proposed show in our Artwork of Residing Gallery. Keep tuned as we unravel this thread!
Due to textile collector and philanthropist Leslie B Durst’s beneficiant donation which allowed Nationwide Museums Scotland to accumulate this beautiful embroidered textile.
