[The Fates]
17th Century Embroidered Textile depicting the Greek Fates
Embroidered textile depicting Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, the Greek fates, shown here with the thread of life and their associated tools. Metal and silk thread on silk panel. English, ca. 1650. Unexamined out of frame, but apparently in fine condition. Framed to 17 x 13 inches (43.2 x 33 cm.).The Fates, known in Greek as the Moirai, ensured that every being, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny. Clotho spun the thread of life from her distaff onto a spindle, Lachesis would measure each person's allotment of thread with her measuring rod, and Atropos would cut the thread of life when a being's time had come.
"The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a flowering of the art of embroidery for secular use, particularly in England. During the Middle Ages, English artisans were famed throughout Europe for their embroidered church vestments. However, from the time that King Henry VIII severed relations with the Catholic church in 1534 and established the Church of England, the need for elaborately decorated religious vestments and furnishings for worship diminished greatly. But by the late sixteenth century, the taste for rich clothing and domestic decorations increased and a larger segment of society could afford to buy or make these luxury items during the relatively peaceful and prosperous late years of Elizabeth I‘s reign....This was the favored mode of decoration for household furnishings and fashionable dress, as well as for ceremonial garments and decorations used at the late Elizabethan and early Stuart court."
"High-quality embroidery was produced by a diverse group of people. While this skill is traditionally associated with femininity and the education of young girls, it was in fact practiced by both men and women, children and adults, paid professionals and talented amateurs....The increasing production and popularity of printed pattern books for lace and embroidery in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries speaks to the popularity of decorative embroidery as a pastime among amateurs who could afford to buy books and excelled at fine needlework. The first pattern books were printed on the Continent and imported into England (21.15.2bis(1–48)). The first English pattern book was published in the 1590s, though the earlier examples are almost entirely copied from German and Italian works. Pictorial designs were also copied from Continental illustrated Bibles and decorative prints of secular subjects such as personifications of the Five Senses, the Four Seasons, or the four known continents."
Source: Watt, Melinda. “English Embroidery of the Late Tudor and Stuart Eras.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/broi/hd_broi.htm (May 2010). (20175)
Philosophy & Religions Art