left: weave draft of the canvas of El Greco’s paintings in the “Iglesia de la Caridad de Illescas” (17th century) Source xray image: Bruquetas 2002, p 239
right:weave draft of a 14th century textile preserved at Hildesheim Germany in the Church of St Godehard
source: Six, J. “Kruiswerk, Lavendel, Pavy en Pellen,” Het Huis, Oud & Nieuw, vol. 10 (1912), pp. 105-122.Medieval Textiles 31, 2002 Carolyn Priest-Dorman
…not yet safe enough to travel by myself, but happy to write that the reconstructions of the canvases have travelled to be involved in cooperation with:
Factum Foundation for high resolution 3D images,
Glasgow University for mecanical stretch tests
and the Prado Museum for X-ray experiments…
I look forward to receive more images from The Stedelijk Museum, or get permission to go by myself or have a student making detailed pictures so we can decipher the pattern and thereby preserve the textile knowledge of this canvas. Fingers crossed!
…I first found about this canvas in the Dutch TV show “Krabbé zoekt, a journey in Chagall’s footsteps”. Broadcast AVROTROS.
Although not allowed to see this program in Portugal, because of geographic location, I managed to catch some parts of the video and make a still. It was possible to get rough idea of the pattern.
source text and picture below: https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/753-marc-chagall-le-violoniste
Marc Chagall’s The Fiddler, completed just after moving to Paris from St. Petersburg, is a good representation of the artist’s work from this period. The fiddler as a subject is often found in Chagall’s work. The huge figure of the musician in this painting stands with one foot on the roof of a building, the other on a small hilltop which flattens out the picture plane. By including the homes in the background as well as the musician, this painting recalls memories of Russia. Chagall’s paintings realized during this time in Paris often portrayed scenes from Russia with inspiration from his new surroundings. Cubist influences can be seen in the series of flat planes and geometric shapes as well as in the non traditional perspective.
1912-1913
Weave drafts of the canvas of Velázquez’s “Adoration of the Magi” (1619)
I tried to see the effect of switching the draft in the warp and in the weft. These pictures show the effect of ‘back and front view” and turning the ‘textile’ 90*
I will have to weave the textile to confirm if they are different or not.
Or do you think there are matches if we could see the black (warp) also as lines in the computer generated (Iweaveit) pictures ?
The reason for this puzzle is that it might give a more secure idea of warp and weft direction in canvases without a selvedge by assuming the most logic weave draft to work out on the loom….note: the drafts at the bottom are matching.
There is a difference of 4 threads in the weft repeat. The warp threading and lifting is the same in both textiles. The weaver has used a sequence that skipped 4 wefts in each repeat.
Disrobing of Christ: X-ray image, analyses and weave draft superimposed
Disrobing of Christ: X-ray image
Disrobing of Christ: ‘drawing’ the lines of the threads
Disrobing of Christ: hand drawing on square paper and suffering in trying to find the pattern
Disrobing of Christ: hand drawing on square paper
weft repeat of 52 passes,
Disrobing of Christ: computer generated weave draft. In the red circle is seen a difference with the draft of the textile of the canvas of The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.
Burial of the Count of Orgaz , weave draft, weft repeat 56 passes
Velázquez’s Adoración de los Reyes Magos painted in Seville in 1619, is on a canvas with a pattern. Analyses of the original textile at one of the borders show an M W twill pattern where the diagonals do not line up perfectly.
I will again double check the weave draft I have generated on Weavelt, and publish the full draft soon.
The Getty Foundation’s Conserving Canvas Initiative aims to ensure that skills in the structural treatment of works on canvas are not lost in a period where minimal intervention is a dominant approach.
Ian McClure, Susan Mores Hilles Chief Conservator at Yale University Art Gallery wrote about my work:
“Her reconstructions based on high resolution-radiographs of paintings duplicate canvases, for example used by El Greco and by Velázquez in his Seville period where there is little information about his practice and where his paintings are not securely attributed. Ms. Loermans has set out to reproduce as many of his early canvases as possible which will contribute to our knowledge of the artist.”
Can’t wait to know if we will find more details on the canvases in the reproduction of the documents by Factum Arte.
Imagine we find where and how they were woven…..that could open a whole new resource of information on textile production in that period !
Very interesting news from Casa Natal de Velázquez!
Recovery of the main documents and produce reproductions identical to the originals by Factum Arte will give Lab O the oportunity to search for information on the canvases…can’t wait…
“Com Velázquez nunca te vas sintiendo que lo has descubierto todo” https://casanatalvelazquez.com/en/
An amazing project for the recovery of what was the birthplace of one of the great geniuses of painting Diego Velázquez in Seville and to convert the house in an interpretation center.