An Italian Renaissance voided, pile on pile silk velvet, brocaded, metal-thread and bouclé panel, 16th century

with a large scale pattern of pomegranate ornament in red silk pile of two heights, with silver-gilt threads and bouclé loops, comprised of two joined width panels, each width pieced horizontally

Cover of the Weinmuller Sale 1960/1961, Provenance Otto Bernheimer;
Exhibited Die Kunst- und Antiquitatenfirma Bernheimer, Judischen Museums, Munich, November 2007-March 2008, cat. nr. 8. (Retained by the family)

Emily D. Bilski, Die Kunst- und Antiquitatenfirma Bernheimer, exh. cat., Judischen Museums, Munich, Minerva, 2007, p.39, ill.

Comparative Literature

Giuseppe Cantelli, Il Museo Stibbert a Firenze, II Vols, Milan, 1974, Vol. I.,cat.2046, p.174 & Vol. II, fig.355.
Peggy Stoltz Gilfoy, Fabrics in Celebration from the Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1983, no.96, ill.
Rosalia Bonito Fanelli, Il Museo del Tessuto a Prato: la donazione Bertini, Florence, 1975, cat.7., p.64.
Monique King and Donald King, European Textiles in the Keir Collection 400 BC to 1800 AD, London, 1990, Chp. 5, Medieval and Renaissance Embroidery, 900 - 1550, pp.88-111, No.72-74, pp.108-111.
Christa Charlotte Mayer, Masterpieces of Western Textiles, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1969, pl. 147. 
Lisa Monnas, Renaissance Velvets, London, 2012, pp.120-121, Nr.35.
J. M. Rogers (translated and edited), Hülye Tezcan and Selma Delibas, The Topkapi Saray Museum: Costumes, Embroideries and other Textiles, London, 1986, p.153, pl. no.31 (and detail).
Alice Zrebiec, Textiles in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (Winter, 1995-96), p.45.

Measurements: Mounted within box frame 173cm high, 133cm wide, 2.5cm deep; Textile: Total height 158cm, total width 117cm (each panel being 59cm wide) Please note that the catalogue image is orientated in the direction of the design, and not in the direction of the weave. The condition report is in the direction of the weave. Comprised of two vertically joined loom width panels. Within each panel there are separate pieces. The left panel comprises of four pieces from the top edge down the sections are 67cm high, 83cm. high, 5cm high, and 4cm. high. The right panel has three pieces, from the top, the pieces are 4cm. high, 76cm high and 78cm. high. Each panel has original flatweave green and yellow banded selvedge extant on the outer edge, which is joined where the different pieces join. The velvet is in very good condition overall, except in areas along the vertical join, as visible in the photograph, and in some areas within main panels, for example as vertical areas down to foundation, in right panel, see areas to left and right of top palmette, and to right of lower palmette, visible in the photograph. To the left panel there are small vertical areas of wear to the left of the lower palmette, along the horizontal join beneath the upper palmette and a small horizontal area left of upper palmette and vertical area, right of upper palmette. Far edges of main panels have slight impression, perhaps from previous mounting, and on very close magnified examination there is no evidence of join, only pile loss. The metal thread is loose and lacking in areas, commensurate with age, but is extant as horizontal threads across most of the panel, except to the central of the palmette at the top of the right panel, and the metal-thread is still present as the boucle work within sections of the motifs. This results in a shine when seen in the right light. There is an area of repair at the very top, near the central vertical join, on the right panel, of later metal threads and hand stitching in cerise thread to imitate surrounding velvet. This is an extraordinary and highly technically produced velvet panel.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The velvet is identical in design to that used in a set of ecclesiastical Mass vestments, now divided between the Victoria and Albert Museum and Keir Collection, and purchased from Christie's, South Kensington, 27 May 1976.
For discussion of the dalmatic and altar frontal in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Lisa Monnas, Renaissance Velvets, London, 2012, pp.120-121, Nr.35, Dalmatic, made of crimson pile-on-pile velvet, Italy (possibly Florence) or Spain, mid 16th century (see Fig. 1), with a matching altar frontal, and the accompanying matching dalmatic, cope and chasuble from the same set now in the Keir Collection.

For other related examples to this velvet, which are either identical or very similar, include three fragments (78 by 57.2cm, 76 by 56.1cm and 70.7 by 57cm) in the Musée des Art Décoratifs, Paris (10601 A, B & C - unpublished), and a chasuble, Italy, 1500-1550, in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Orville A. and Elina D. Wilkinson Fund (74.117).

There are six other similar variants recorded by Monnas, including: fragments in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; a late fifteenth century altar frontal, Italy, in the Chicago Art Institute; a sixteenth century fragment in the Museo Stibbert, Florence and a Florentine fragment, third quarter of the fifteenth century, in the Museo del Tessuto, Prato; a composite panel (376 by 58.4cm), Italian or Spanish, late fifteenth/early sixteenth century, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York and a comparable swath of a close variant of this velvet design was used for a ceremonial long sleeved kaftan, with gold brocaded crimson velvet, seventeenth century, probably Spanish, belonging to Sultan Ahmed I (1603 -1617), in Istanbul (The Topkapi Saray Museum).

The wonderfully vibrant and large pattern velvet has survived in examples which have been attributed to Florence, Venice and Spain. It has been noted by Roger, Tezcan and Delibas that silks similar to this in design were woven in both Italy and Spain. The style of velvet was also exported to Turkey, and an example found in the surviving kaftan in the Topkapi Saray Museum, which is considered to be Venetian in design, much imitated in contemporary Spain. Italian velvets from the various cities including Florence, Venice and Genoa are difficult to distinguish apart, due to the similar techniques used by all.

In addition to the detailed and comprehensive discussion of early velvets by Monnas, opcit., see Fabrizio de'Marinis (ed), Velvet: History Techniques and Fashions, Milan, 1994, essay, Roberta Orsi Landini, The triumph of velvet: Italian production of velvet in the Renaissance, pp.19-49, for further discussion of the production and processing of velvet, the motifs, uses and fashions including notes on sumptuary laws. Produced in the Renaissance the velvet of the present panel shows no specific reference to Antiquity or to Renaissance designs, but relates to early Late Gothic inspired textiles.