June 10, 2014 - March 8, 2015The coordinated fabrics that make up the jacket and trousers of the Oscar de la Renta suit explicitly refer to the exuberant naturalism of late 18th-century silk woven textiles. This circa 1800 Portuguese or Spanish example features vases framed by floral garlands and doves holding olive twigs; such patterns reflect the aristocratic taste for pastoral themes and the idyllic country life, as expressed by the Neoclassical aesthetic style.“Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass"With the establishment of its colonial trade center in Goa, India, in the early 16th century, Portugal was flooded with imported Indian luxury textiles, which left a distinct mark on furnishings such as this marriage quilt, or colcha. Abounding with painstakingly embroidered carnations and scrolling vines on a silk ground, it was either made in India for the Portuguese market or crafted in Portugal as a version of the Indian originals. The artisans who made this piece substituted the carnation—a flower indigenous to the Mediterranean—for a lotus-blossom motif that would have been more familiar to the Asian market.
ecrm:P3_has_note
June 10, 2014 - March 8, 2015The coordinated fabrics that make up the jacket and trousers of the Oscar de la Renta suit explicitly refer to the exuberant naturalism of late 18th-century silk woven textiles. This circa 1800 Portuguese or Spanish example features vases framed by floral garlands and doves holding olive twigs; such patterns reflect the aristocratic taste for pastoral themes and the idyllic country life, as expressed by the Neoclassical aesthetic style.With the establishment of its colonial trade center in Goa, India, in the early 16th century, Portugal was flooded with imported Indian luxury textiles, which left a distinct mark on furnishings such as this marriage quilt, or colcha. Abounding with painstakingly embroidered carnations and scrolling vines on a silk ground, it was either made in India for the Portuguese market or crafted in Portugal as a version of the Indian originals. The artisans who made this piece substituted the carnation—a flower indigenous to the Mediterranean—for a lotus-blossom motif that would have been more familiar to the Asian market.“Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass"