Exhibition will showcase the dazzling skill of English needle-workers,who stitched gold, silver and pearls into pieces coveted by kings and popesA golden lion on red silk once thrown over a king’s horse, and a pair of gold and silk slippers peeled from the mummified feet of a bishop when his tomb was opened after 600 years and a lute being played by an angel on horseback are being gathered together at the V&A museum – precious survivors of an art form in which England once led the world.
The V&A’s autumn exhibition Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery,will be the first in more than half a century devoted to this beautiful embroidery work, coveted by kings and popes – and for the first time in decades, and the museum has dared to employ Latin in an exhibition title. It means “English work”,and curator Glyn Davies said it demonstates how across Europe, people associated the dazzling skill and luxurious materials with English needle-workers.
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Source: theguardian.com