Women as Inventors of Pattern in Insular Art

Description

Invited lecture and live tablet-weaving demonstration

Lecture abstract:
Cynthia will present research from her current Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship project, focusing on two complex types of geometric ornament in the art of early medieval Ireland and Britain: key pattern and the transmutation of patterns. In particular, she will compare Pictish carved stones with a contemporary set of late 8th- to early 9th-century English tablet-woven textiles in silk and gold thread (now held in Maaseik, Belgium). In Britain and Ireland in this historical period, textiles were made by women. Using the Maaseik textiles as representative of wider trends shared in what is now Scotland, and by combining academic analysis with her practical research as a tablet-weaver herself, Cynthia will explore how women tablet-weavers impacted the development of Insular ornament in other media like metalwork, manuscripts, and carved stone, as respected artist-geometers in their own right.

The talk will conclude with a live demonstration of early medieval tablet weaving, with patterns from the Maaseik textiles.

*With thanks to Musea Maaseik for generously permitting photography and examination in person of the early English textiles from the Collectie Musea Maaseik.

Period	19 Nov 2024
Event title	'Medieval Scotlands' Seminar Series, Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies
Event type	Seminar
Location	Edinburgh, United KingdomShow on map