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Prof. Dr.
Annemarie Stauffer
The
existence and circulation of models and pattern-books in antiquity have
been much discussed. Tapestry weaving is a decorative technique in which a
pattern is indispensable. To have a clear guideline at any stage of their,
work, weavers since antiquity have used a model drawing, a cartoon
probably fixed behind the warp threads.
Such
cartoons are preserved from late antique, Byzantine and Islamic Egypt,
where textile workshops producing hundreds of richly decorated garments
and curtains cartoons were in high demand. The cartoons were found among
the rubbish heaps in Hermopolis Magna, Oxyrrhynchos, Antinopolis ect.
The
research project initiated by Annemarie Stauffer in 1994 aims to collect
all material preserved. More than one hundred cartoons have been collected
and compared with preserved textiles from the same place and period. Thus
it is possible to get clear information about characteristics of a cartoon
as such, about their use and circulation in workshops as well as new
insight how these cartoons were 'translated' into the textile
medium.
The
research project was partly supported by the Swiss National Fonds. The
final publication is planned for 2006/07.
Bibliography: A. Stauffer, Cartoons for
Weavers from Greaeco-Roman Egypt, in: Journal of Roman Archaeology Suppl.
19, 1993, 224 - 230.
A. Stauffer: Antike Musterbücher - Wirkkartons aus dem
spätantiken und frühbyzantinischen Ägypten (print in preparation).
Left:
Cartoon for a Clavus painted on Papyrus ©Museo Egizio Torino. Right:
Clavus from a Late Roman Tunic ©A. Stauffer.
Ansprechpartner
Professor Annemarie Stauffer
annemarie.stauffer@fh-koeln.de
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