EMBROIDERED OVER A PRINTED TEMPLATE
[MARIAN DEVOTION.]
Embroidered silk panel depicting the Virgin and Child.
[Netherlands, early eighteenth century?]
Silk panel (c. 105 x 89 mm), embroidered with metal and coloured threads over an engraved template, on a brown woven backing, hemmed; pinned at corners, a little faded, a few small moth holes (particularly to lower right corner), but generally well preserved, framed.
A delightful silk panel, embroidered over a printed template, most likely produced by nuns, depicting the Virgin and Child within a central medallion with elaborate floral borders.
Embroidery panels such as the present example are typical of the small-scale in-house production by convents, manufactured by nuns for sale both as pilgrim badges and as devotional images. The design is embroidered over an engraved template, facilitating reproduction by less skilled hands and allowing for the sale both of plain printed copies and, as here, of more luxurious embroidered examples.
