Kaftans from Istanbul in Paris

In Paris for a flying visit...(above - a chalk drawing of a cheeseboard on a cafe blackboard) by chance come across an exhibition of embroidered kaftans from Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, at the Louvre (only just - there was a strike about proposed job cuts...)
Was struck by the tails left on the ermine lining this 16th century quilted kaftan (quilted with the same running stitches we saw in the kantha last week).
















And spotted pomegranates on an Italian velvet kaftan from the second half of the 16th century - alongside tulips (another flower that links east and west)














And finally a talismanic kaftan with phrases from the Koran - in our first class, someone pointed out that people often carry pieces of paper with phrases from the Koran as talismans to protect them. This quilted 17th century kaftan was covered with them.

The pomegranate and Persephone

A blog reader in stormy Cornwall has remembered Persephone and the pomegranate - another link with the first image that we studied in the embroidery packs launched last week.

Persephone, beautiful daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was kidnapped by Pluto, King of the underworld. Her parents were – naturally – devastated. Demeter, goddess of agriculture, went into mourning. Crops failed, people starved. Such was the devastation that Zeus ordered Pluto to free Persephone – as long as she had not eaten in the underworld. Pluto let her go as he thought that she had not eaten.

Persephone fled back to her mother’s arms (as in Lord Leighton’s painting above) but close on her heels was a gardener who revealed that she had eaten seven pomegranate seeds in the land of the dead. She had to go back.

But there was a compromise. It was decided that she could live on earth for nine months each year then return to the underworld for the other three.Every year while Persephone was away Demeter refused to allow any plants to grow. Trees lost their leaves; plants withered. Hence winter. All flourished again in the spring when Persephone returned.

More paintings (though not the above) by Lord Leighton at Leighton House, Kensington - a place full of pattern and motifs.

The Madonna of the Pomegranate

Later in the evening - Hannah Walker, who designed the motifs for the embroidery packs, sends over her powerpoint. A brilliant mix of images that illustrate the point of the first class - and the stitch involved (blackwork). The pattern, a pomegranate, is important in Christian symbolism as well as Islam. As this painting by Botticelli (in the Uffizi, Florence, shows...