Compton Verney Warwickshire CV35 9HZ The Fabric of Myth T. 01926 645 500 Supported by www.comptonverney.org.uk Registered charity no.1032478 21 June – 7 September 2008 Gallery 1 Introduction 3 Resource Room The Fabric of Myth begins by exploring the significance of textiles in classical mythology. These myths shed light on the power of fabric to communicate universal themes 2 across time, from 400BC to the present day. 7 Ariadne’s thread unlocked the mystery of the labyrinth; Penelope’s loyalty to her husband Odysseus was tied to her loom as she wove and unwove by day 4 1 6 and night; the Three Fates controlled the lifespan of both men and gods by spinning yarn, drawing out thread and cutting it. These narratives have stood the test of time. From these classical beginnings The Fabric of Myth a 5 will trace the symbolic power of such characters and the Lift themes they represent. The figure of the mortal Arachne, t transformed into a spider for challenging the goddess Athena to a weaving contest, can be seen to represent Chinese Galleries Gallery 1 Ariadne’s thread an early embodiment of the artist. She in turn has ‘tis said the Labyrinth held a path woven... gone on to inspire artists such as Louise Bourgeois with a thousand ways and Elaine Reichek. Virgil, Aeneid The imprisoned Philomela from Ovid’s Metamorphoses turns to weaving to communicate her By giving the guiding thread to Theseus, Ariadne empowers him in his dangerous journey into the labyrinth to slay the plight. This theme resonates through the embroidery minotaur and return to safety. The thread maps out a journey of Mary Queen of Scots during her incarceration, and of protection and liberation. more recently in the work of Arthur Bispo Do Rosário, For Louise Bourgeois needle and thread become part of Ray Materson and Delaine Le Bas. a symbolic language. From her early background working in The fabric of myth continues to weave a symbolic tapestry restoration in France to her later career as an artist, path, and like the myths themselves, finds new the thread goes beyond everyday functionality and begins a relevance today. journey of transformation. Gallery 1 Gallery 1 Louise Bourgeois Ariadne Ariadne is depicted after the Ariadne and Theseus Needle (Fuseau) Louise Bourgeois’ family worked armature and flax ready to be 5th century AD drama of the Cretan labyrinth and at the entrance to the 1992 in the Aubusson tapestry industry drawn out into thread suggest Woollen tapestry her subsequent abandonment Labyrinth Steel, flax, thread in France. From a young age future possibilities and the Kunsthistorisches Museum by Theseus. She has become the 1563 and wire Bourgeois herself carried out the potential to restore and remake. Wien, Antikensammlung consort of the god Dionysos and Image reproduced from Galerie Karsten Greve, repairs and redesign of antique This process forms a direct link Ovid, Metamorphoses wears his golden diadem. Cologne tapestries in the family’s workshop. to mythological weavers such as (ed. J. Spreng) Only fragments and traces This formative experience shaped Penelope whose weaving and Illustrated by Virgil Solis, of textile remain from Classical her artistic career. The needle and unweaving became a powerful Frankfurt am Main Greece. In contrast, the dry Woodcut, based on thread from her past have been creative and symbolic act. Egyptian sands have conserved an earlier woodcut by used to create a large body of many significant examples such as Bernard Salomon fabric sculptures and the themes this Coptic tapestry. The depiction The Bodleian Library, of sewing, spinning and weaving of Ariadne provides us with a link University of Oxford, can be seen to be carried through to the Classical Age. Its function Douce O 36, fol. 94r much of her work’s conceptual is uncertain: it may have been ideology. incorporated into a large tapestry Needle (Fuseau) symbolically hanging or attached to a garment links Bourgeois’ past with her own for ceremonial use. creativity. The needle’s dramatic Gallery 1 Edward Burne-Jones Gallery 2 and 3 Metamorphosis Chaucer’s ‘Legend Burne-Jones was part of the Art Gallery), and also produced Metamorphosis is a consistent theme throughout classical of Good Women’ – Pre-Raphaelite movement, and a large-scale series of paintings mythology. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses both gods and mortals Ariadne and Lucretia was particularly interested in the based on the story of Sleeping are part of an unstable world which is constantly undergoing 1864 representation of myths. Ruskin is Beauty, known as The Legend of transformation. Arachne, challenging the goddess Athena to Sepia wash, over pencil said to have remarked that he had the Briar Rose (Buscot Park). on brown washed paper developed a command over ‘the Burne-Jones’ stylised pencil a weaving contest, is humbled and transformed into a spider. Birmingham Museums & entire range of Northern and Greek drawing is one of a series of Significantly the goddess and sorceress, Circe, weaves at Art Gallery mythology’. Like many of the seven studies, six of which were her loom at the same time as weaving plots to ensnare and other Pre-Raphaelites, Burne-Jones used for the bay window of the transform men. was also interested in depicting Combination Room at Peterhouse The mythic and magical power of thread also undergoes romantic evocations of legends. He College, Cambridge. Seen here metamorphosis: from Greek vase painting and illustrated would go on to work with William with Lucretia, Ariadne has been Morris’ workshop on a series of depicted with the ball of thread manuscripts, to embroidery and tapestry. In William Morris’ tapestries depicting The Holy that saves Theseus – an archetypal tapestry, The Woodpecker, both text and image have been Grail (Birmingham Museums and benevolent heroine. united in fabric form. Gallery 2 William Morris Gallery 2 The Woodpecker Morris’ design for this tapestry was woven by William Knight and Odysseus and Circe Most of our representations of his companions into swine and 1885 takes Ovid’s Metamorphoses as its William Sleath at Morris’ Merton 4th century BC weaving in the ancient world come is about to offer him a cup of Tapestry designed by inspiration. Circe again weaves her Abbey workshop. Boeotian (Cabirion) from the black and red figure drugged wine. Circe’s upright William Morris and woven magic in Ovid’s account of King Morris was not interested in black figure skyphos vases of Classical Greece. On this loom is of a type that had been by Morris & Company Picus, turned by the sorceress into mimicking the subtleties of paint (drinking vessel) drinking vessel associated with in existence since the late Bronze William Morris Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, a woodpecker for not returning her in tapestry form (as seen in the the cult of the Cabeiri at Thebes Age (1500BC). In the context of London Oxford amorous advances. Morris’ own Flemish tapestry opposite) and in Boeotia, eastern Greece, the Homer’s The Odyssey it exists both verse is woven into the tapestry reacted against the industrial sorceress Circe is weaving a as a familiar household object and scroll, revolution and designs woven robe and also a plot to ensnare a metaphor implying that Circe is on industrial looms. In his Odysseus. She has already turned also a weaver of magic. I once a King and chief lecture on The Lesser Arts of Life Now am the tree-bark’s thief, he vehemently referred to the Ever ‘twixt trunk and leaf Gobelins tapestry workshop in Chasing the prey Paris as reducing weaving from William Morris, Poems by the Way, 1891 fine art to an ‘upholsterer’s toy’. This tapestry is one of few to have He looked instead to medieval been designed solely by Morris examples for inspiration, and himself (apart from the birds which valued the authenticity of the were designed by Philip Webb). It weaver’s hand itself. Gallery 2 Elizabeth Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury Europa and the Bull This panel depicts the story of This panel which has Bess of suggested this design, based as Europa and the Bull c.1580 Europa and the Bull from Ovid’s Hardwick’s ES monogram clearly it was on a woodcut after Bernard 1563 Embroidered panel Metamorphoses. Having fallen in embroidered into the design, was Salomon and published in Virgil From Ovid, Hardwick Hall, the love with Europa, the god Zeus most probably completed during Solis’ Latin version of Ovid’s Metamorphoses Devonshire Collection changed shape into a benevolent Mary Queen of Scots’ incarceration Metamorphoses, also exhibited (ed. J. Spreng) Illustrated by Virgil Solis, (acquired through the bull as part of her father’s herd within Bess’ household. For a here. National Land Fund Frankfurt am Main of cattle. Unsuspecting, Europa period of some fourteen years The embroidered panel would and transferred to The Woodcut, based on fell in love with the tame bull and Mary was under the charge of both have been used as a cushion National Trust in 1959) an earlier woodcut by is seen here being carried off to Bess and her husband George cover. To reflect Bess’ household, Bernard Salomon sea. This subject was one of the Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury. Europa and her attendants have The Bodleian Library, narratives illustrated by Arachne At first the two women were on been updated to wear the then University of Oxford, during her weaving contest with good terms and spent a large part contemporary style of dress, in Douce O 36, fol. 36r Athena (patron of the arts and of their time together devising contrast to the more diaphanous goddess of weaving) to highlight and completing needlework classical draperies depicted in the misdemeanours carried out by designs.