Truly,medieval textiles, rather than those in the style of, are not nearly asnumerous as we would wish them to be. There are a number of reasons why thisshould be so. Apart from the obvious length of time between the medieval periodand our own, there is also the fact that until recent times the idea ofthrowing away anything that could not be reused and recycled was not even aconsideration. The same was certainly true for textiles, particularly thoseused domestically.
Medievalwall hangings for example, were often used until obviously threadbare. Theywere then cut up into smaller segments and used for various other domestictasks including upholstery, the better kept pieces taking a more prominentposition. The original large hangings would, over the years, becomeincreasingly smaller and smaller until they literally disintegrated.
Tobe fair, a number of good examples of medieval textile design do survive.However, a ready supply of imagery, giving a plethora of textile pattern work,or at least a strong indication as to how much of the rich textile design workwas available and how it looked, both as a design and within a setting, can beseen through the use of illustrations in medieval manuscripts.
This article wasoriginally published in the Design, Decoration, Craft Blog.
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