Medieval European Embroidery

In 2020, Musée de Cluny organised an exhibition on “The Art of Embroidery in the Middle Ages” (L’art en broderie au Moyen Âge). In connection with the exhibition, a catalogue was published. Now, six years later, the proceeding for the scientific conference in January 2020 have been published.

Regards sur la Broderie en Occident au Moyen Âge. Production, création et usages, XIIe–XVIe siècle
Eds. Philippe Lorentz, Astrid Castres, Rose-Marie Ferré
Brepols, july 2026

New book brings together the proceedings of two study days held at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), Paris, in January 2020, alongside the Musée de Cluny exhibition “L’art en broderie au Moyen Âge”. The conference sought to foster dialogue among specialists from Germany, England, Spain, France, Switzerland, and the United States in order to assess current research perspectives on medieval embroidery—an art form that remains comparatively little studied in France despite its prominent place within the rich visual culture of the later Middle Ages.

The essays collected here offer fresh insights into the history of both liturgical and secular embroidery in Western Europe between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. They are organised around three principal themes. The first examines the contexts of production, focusing on three distinct settings: the English royal court, Catalan workshops, and the workshops of Paris. The second explores the dialogue between embroidery and other artistic media during this period, particularly when embroidery functioned as ‘painting with the needle’ or when its sculptural relief rivalled that of sculpture and goldsmiths’ work. Finally, the contributions in the third section present new perspectives on the use of embroidered images and their role within medieval ritual.

More broadly, the volume invites readers to appreciate the richness of this textile heritage, now preserved in museums, church treasuries, and private collections. The book is illustrated with more than one hundred colour plates.

CONTENTS

Medieval Embroidery in France: The Current State of Research — Astrid Castres and Philippe Lorentz

Part I. Contexts of Production

• Secular Embroidery for the English Court, 1300–1461 — Lisa Monnas
• A Corpus of Embroidery in Catalonia during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries — Guadaira Macías and Cèsar Favà
• Embroidery “of the Work of Paris” at the End of the Middle Ages — Astrid Castres
• The Embroidered Mitre from the Sainte-Chapelle in the Musée de Cluny: A Fresh Perspective — Isabelle Bédat

Part II. Embroidery: Painting with the Needle

• Embroidered Altar Frontals and Other Liturgical Hangings in Catalonia and Valencia during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: Imports and Local Production — Rafael Cornudella
• The Embroidered Altarpiece of Pedro de Montoya, Bishop of Osma, in the Art Institute of Chicago — Martha Wolff
• “A Great Banner Beaten with Fine Gold”: Techniques, Practices, and Uses of Gilding on Textiles in the Late Middle Ages — Nadège Gauffre Fayolle
• A Recently Acquired Orphrey in the Musée de Cluny: New Questions concerning the Opus Florentinum — Christine Descatoire

Part III. Images, Rituals, and Uses

• Vision and Embroidery: The Crown of Hildegard of Bingen and its Medallions — Philippe Cordez and Eveline Wetter
• Purity, Adornment, and Performance: Embroidery on Altar Linens and their Cases (1250–1550) — Julie Glodt
• A Rediscovered Masterpiece of the Thirteenth Century: The Embroidered Chasuble of Guillaume de Joinville, Archbishop of Reims
• (Palais du Tau, Treasury of Reims Cathedral) — Maxence Hermant

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