Bizarre silks are a style of figured

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

fabrics Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not ...

popular in Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Bizarre silks are characterized by large-scale, asymmetrical patterns featuring geometrical shapes and stylized leaves and flowers, influenced by a wave of Asian textiles and decorative objects reaching the European market in these decades. Bizarre silks were used for both clothing and furnishings.Takedo and Spilker (2010), p. 209Takedo and Spilker (2010), p. 52 As a description, the term was first used by Dr. Vilhelm Sloman in the title of a book, ''Bizarre Designs in Silks'' published in 1953 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Development

The modern name "bizarre silk" reflects the bold colors and lavish use of textured gold and silver threads as well as the distinctive elongated asymmetrical patterns of silk fabrics woven in France, Italy and Britain from about 1695 to 1720.Sewell (2010), p. 497 Woven silk designs of the 1670s had featured patterns of decorated stripes, but in the 1680s and 1690s these were replaced by the earliest "proto-bizarre" patterns, which featured exotic elements based on artifacts imported from the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

"indiscriminately combined with the current European taste for bulbous

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

scrolls."Rothstein (1994), p. 11 At their most extreme, from 1700 to 1705, bizarre silks feature "some of the most extraordinary shapes to be introduced into silk design" before the development of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

in the early 20th century. Characteristics of these designs include diagonal emphasis with stretched and distorted botanical motifs. The development of bizarre designs among the English silk weavers of

Spitalfields Spitalfields () is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and situated in the East End of London, East End. Spitalfields is formed around Commercial Street, London, Commercial Stre ...

can be dated quite closely based on surviving textiles and documents. Around 1707 and 1708, bizarre designs combined distorted florals with architectural elements such as arches, canopies, pergolas, and diagonal fences. From 1709 to 1710, the scale of the patterns was reduced and elements of ''

chinoiserie (, ; loanword from French '' chinoiserie'', from '' chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other Sinosphere artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, lite ...

'' and '' japonaiserie'' appeared. After 1710, the bizarre shapes are deemphasized in favor of "increasingly profuse semi-naturalistic flowers".Rothstein (1994), p. 12 The bizarre period ended with the new fashion for lace-patterned textiles and naturalistic florals in the 1720s.

Technique and applications

Bizarre silks were woven on the drawloom, and the colorful patterns were

brocade Brocade () is a class of richly decorative shuttle (weaving), shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian langua ...

d or created with floating pattern wefts (

lampas Lampas is a type of luxury Textile, fabric created on a draw loom with a background weft (a "ground weave") typically in taffeta with supplementary wefts (the "pattern wefts") laid on top and forming a design, sometimes also with a "Brocade, broca ...

). At the height of the fashion, the average repeat of a bizarre silk pattern was high and wide, repeating twice across the width of the fabric. These large-scale designs were perfectly suited to the popular

mantua Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...

, a woman's gown with long, flowing lines and few seams, and were also popular for men's waistcoats and furnishings.

Gallery

The strong reds, yellows and oranges in textile design drawings of this period are codes for various types of metallic threads. File:Man's silk waistcoat with sleeves c 1715.jpg, Bizarre silk waistcoat with sleeves, France, c. 1715. LACMA M.2007.211.40 File:Mantua MET DT6544.jpg, Detail of a salmon pink bizarre silk brocade mantua, c. 1708.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

File:Charles Baudouin design for woven silk textile 1707.jpg, Christopher Baudouin, design for woven silk textile, 1707.

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

. File:James Leman design for woven silk textile 1710.jpg, James Leman, design for woven silk textile, 1710. Victoria and Albert Museum. File:Joseph Dandridge design for woven silk textile 1718.jpg, Joseph Dandridge, design for woven silk textile, 1718. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Notes

References

* Brown, Clare. ''Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century from the Victoria and Albert Museum'', Thams and Hudson, 1996, . * Takeda, Sharon Sadako, and Kaye Durland Spilker. ''Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 - 1915'', LACMA/Prestel USA 2010, . * Rothstein, Natalie. ''Woven Textile Design in Britain to 1750'' (''The Victoria and Albert Museum's Textile Collections'' series), Canopy Books, 1994, . * Sewell, Dennita. "Mantua." In Valerie Steele, editor. ''The Berg Companion to Fashion.'' Berg Publishers, 2010, . * (in German) Ackermann, Hans Christoph. ''Seidengewebe des 18. Jahrhunderts I. Bizarre Seiden''. Abegg-Stiftung, 2000, .

External links

*
Mantua in salmon-pink and green bizarre silk, 1708

James Leman's album
has designs for a number of bizarre silks, Victoria & Albert Museum.
Views of the exhibition ''Bizarre Silks: An Exoticism from around 1700'', Abegg Foundation (2000)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bizarre Silk Silk Textile design Baroque