Jacquard N°80

In this issue of Jacquard we have provided a podium for an authoritative scholar of tapestry, Maria Taboga, whose article springs from her exhaustive study of the tapestry manufactory of Esino Lario, a small mountain town overlooking Lake Como. Called the ‘Scuola di Arazzeria di Esino Lario’, it was founded in 1936 by the parish priest, Don Rocca, with the intention of generating employment for the women of the town. The tapestries woven by the manufactory to cartoons by contemporary artists of the calibre of Piero Fornasetti, Umberto Lilloni and Aligi Sassu were exhibited at various editions of the Milan Triennale from 1940 to 1957.

The other articles deal with two instances of restoration, one relative to the wig adorning a ‘dressed mannequin’, an important detail of a genre of statuary we have investigated numerous times; the second, the Libro dei Capitoli of the Compagnia di San Benedetto Bianco of Florence.

There follows a presentation of several etchings of a caricatural, satiric nature illustrating certain aspects of the fashions of the 18th century bordering on the ludicrous – and only naturally, exaggerating their exaggerations.

The issue closes with a double ‘blue bow’ announcing the ‘birth’ of the foundation’s two new looms for creating solid cut velvets.