Cobweb painting, sometimes known as gossamer painting, is the delicate process of painting on canvases made from caterpillar and

spider web A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word ''Wikt:coppe, coppe'', meaning 'spider') is a structure created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets, generally meant to catch its prey ...

s that have been collected, layered, cleaned, and framed. Fewer than 100 cobweb paintings are known to exist, many of which are housed in private collections.Cobweb Portraits
Retrieved : 2013-02-12

Introduction

Cobwebs are formed by

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s from protein and extruded from

spinneret A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and ar ...

s to form fine nets. The stickiness of spiders' webs that allows them to adhere to form a 'canvas' is due to droplets of glue suspended on the gossamer threads.

History

Web painting (''Spinnwebenbilder'') is first documented in the 16th century from the

Puster Valley The Puster Valley ( ; , ) is one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The South Tyrolean municipalities of th ...

in the Austrian Tyrolean Alps, carried out by monks who produced paintings on canvases made entirely of spiders' webs or caterpillar silk. These religious miniatures were usually painted for convents, other religious institutions, the middle classes, and the minor aristocracy. Only around 100 are known to exist, primarily held in private collections. Elias Prunner from the Puster Valley was the first secular artist to practice cobweb painting, and in 1765 he painted the

Empress Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position in her own right. She was the sovereig ...

. The celebrated beauty

Philippine Welser Philippine Welser (1527 – 24 April 1580) was the morganatic wife of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria. She was granted the titles Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margravine of Burgau, Landgravine of Mellenburg and Countess of Oberhohenberg and Ni ...

(1527–1580) married Archduke Ferdinand II of

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

secretly, and she settled near Innsbruck, living in the

Schloss Ambras Ambras Castle () is a Renaissance castle and palace located in the hills above Innsbruck, Austria. Ambras Castle is above sea level. Considered one of the most popular tourist attractions of the Tyrol, Ambras Castle was built in the 16th century ...

. Small paintings of Philippine in oval shaped frames were sold to tourists by Franz Unterberger (1838–1902) of

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

, an artist who employed other local artists to produce the portraits. These cobweb paintings were exported to England, North America and Germany in significant numbers. In the 19th and early 20th century the cobweb artists of Innsbruck painted landscapes and scenes involving local peasants, as well as military engagements of the wars of independence. The industrial revolution gave many new themes for cobweb artists to paint. From 1920 onwards no new cobweb paintings from the Tyrol have been recorded. Anne Bradshaw Clopton (1878-1956) also created cobweb paintings.Cobweb Painter Exhibit
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The cobweb canvas

The cobwebs obtained for the early Austrian example came from

Agelenidae The Agelenidae are a large family of spiders in the suborder Araneomorphae. Well-known examples include the common "grass spiders" of the genus ''Agelenopsis''. Nearly all Agelenidae are harmless to humans, but the bite of the hobo spider (''Era ...

funnel-web spiders, whose gossamer sheets were collected in the form of a thin canvas, then put under tension to make an oval blank. The canvas can be strengthened by brushing diluted milk onto the web with great care. Considerable attention must be taken to clean the web, removing insect parts, spider droppings, etc. It is noted that people were employed specifically to collect the large amount of cobwebs required for the many canvases.

Other webs canvases

Chester Cathedral Chester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral and the mother church of the Diocese of Chester. It is located in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. The cathedral, formerly the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint ...

possesses a cobweb image of the Virgin Mary, painted on the net of the moth caterpillar ''

Yponomeuta evonymella The bird-cherry ermine (''Yponomeuta evonymella'') is a species of moth in the family Yponomeutidae, the ermine moths. The wingspan of the moth ranges from 16 to 25 mm. The insect was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl ...

'', probably made by Johan Burgman (d. 1825) from the Tyrol, Austria. It is a copy of a painting by Lucas Cranach I (1472–1553) in

Innsbruck Cathedral Innsbruck Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of St. James (), is an eighteenth-century Baroque architecture, Baroque cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Innsbruck in the city of Innsbruck, Austria, dedicated to the apostle Saint James, ...

(''Dom zu St. Jakob''), Tyrol.Description panel on frame of object in Chester Cathedr

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The painting process

Oil paints can also be employed, and

stippling Stippling is the creation of a pattern simulating varying Grayscale, degrees of solidity or shading by using small dots. Such a pattern may occur in nature and these effects are frequently emulated by artists. Art In printmaking, stipple ...

is a technique that can be used to reduce the chance of damage to the canvas, however this can be very time-consuming.

Chinese ink India ink (British English: Indian ink; also Chinese ink) is a simple black or coloured ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing and outlining, especially when inking comic books and comic strips. I ...

was also sometimes used.Cobweb Painters
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References

{{reflist Spiders and humans Painting techniques Animal products