INTERWOVEN · Collecting, Displaying and Understanding Textiles in Decorative Arts Museums: Comparative Approaches in London and Madrid.
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-07-01 → 2018-06-30
- EU contribution
- €195,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Collecting, Displaying and Understanding Textiles in Decorative Arts Museums: Comparative Approaches in London and Madrid.
The Marie S.- Curie project Interwoven was undertaken from July 2016 until June 2018 at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London (UK). It assessed Iberian textiles in the Museum collection and considered the influence of the V&A on the Spanish National Museum of Decorative Arts (NMDA) in Madrid. The V&A was the first museum of its kind, a model for other museums in Europe and America. Studies exist of the V&A’s relationship with Germany and France, but little has been written on its relationship with Spain. Yet, early in its existence, the V&A was interested in the peninsula and its first art curator, J.C. Robinson, travelled to Iberia and curated an exhibition of Spanish and Portuguese Art in 1881. From its foundation in 1852, after the First International Exhibition held in London 1851, the V&A acquired important objects, including textiles from different periods, in different materials and techniques from all over the world. Textiles were among the most valuable artworks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, different collectors beginning the practice of cutting the same textile up into different fragments and selling them to different collectors and museums. Interwoven selected five case studies. The first focused on the Museum’s influence on its Spanish counterpart and studied V&A practices of displaying textiles and using them for educational purposes. The other four case studies investigated different types of textiles related with Iberia and Spain, through different research questions and methods: materials and techniques, historiography and collecting practices: - Hispano-Moresque/Andalusian textiles and their role in education and on the creative industries - Velvets, 1550-1700: examples of technology transfer and development - English blackwork and its origins (14th – 16th centuries) - Ecclesiastical vestments (Renaissance to 19th century)
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This project will uncover how collecting practices reflected and informed wider discourses about the study of textiles in Britain and Spain’s national museums and institutes, by tracing specific textiles before and after their acquisition. Whilst fashion and textile studies are now recognised fields of academic research, we still know little about the role of museums in helping to facilitate this change. Cabrera will build on her extensive research to date at the National Museum of Decorative Arts (MNAD), to undertake new comparative studies of UK and Spanish approaches to the study of textiles. This will be achieved via case studies of some of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) earliest acquisitions, which have direct connections with Spain. The project will focus on the period 1852-1951, during which many key national museums were born. It will assess the collections and impact of the V&A, which was the model for the MNAD. The V&A will undertake a major redevelopment of its Textile and Fashion Galleries commencing after 2017, which makes re-examination of its historic collections very timely. Cabrera will study textiles held at the V&A from a multidisciplinary perspective, to develop specific object histories and shed light on the formation of European museums and the use of their objects by the creative industries. Case studies will employ approaches from art and design history and engage with new ideas about the transfer of technologies, including the characterisation of raw materials and analysis of fabrics. Key sources will include unpublished archival files, reports and photographs, object labels and the textiles themselves.Cabrera’s training programme would develop her expertise through sustained engagement with museum collections and curatorial and research staff, working across a range of contexts and disciplines. As well as scholarly outcomes, wide public dissemination of the research will be achieved via online blogposts and catalogue entries.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM · LondonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union