Fashionlines Online Magazine
Fashion & Trends People & Places Art & Design Beauty & Health Shopping About Us Editor's Note
The Fine Arts
Diana, a Celebration
Embroideries
La Vie En Rose
Caroline Mak
Serial Painting
Yves Saint Laurent - A Dialog With Art
The Whitney Biennial
Gerhard Richter
Hitting it Big in the Art World
Winston Boyer's Western Landscape
China Rocks Our World
Picasso
The Streets of Old Beijing
Paintings of Light and Earth
A New Art Gallery in Beijing
New Paintings by Jerome Boutterin
Celebrating Earth Day
Exploring the Century of Light
Gerard ter Borch
China International Gallery Exposition
New Art From Beijing

Interior Design
A Visit with Orland Diaz-Azcuy
Alcantara Presents Starlite CL
Green with Envy
Hedi Slimane's Archaism Project
Paul Vincent Wiseman
In Praise of Impatiens
The Snooze Chair

Photography
San Francisco: Vertigo Series
Images of Pastoral Italy
The Colors of Southwest France
At Home in Wyoming
Insider's Guide to Istanbul
Interview with André Rau
Stage - Hedi Slimane Exhibit
Winston Boyer's Western Landscape
At Home and Abroad



Photographs by Alain Rousseau

I first met Daniel and Josiane Fruman through the Paris photographer Alain Rousseau. He had told me about this fascinating couple and their amazing collection of ancient embroideries, which they had been collecting for more than thirty years. Because I cover and report upon Haute Couture, where incredible embroidery is a fact of life, I was interested to meet the Frumans and to possibly see their pieces.


The Frumans’ two hundred pieces of embroidered liturgical ornaments and devotional panels from the XVth to the XXth century collected by are known and recognized by many textile curators of major museums over the world. Here is what the Frumans say about their collection: “The collection comprises a large variety of items which can be differentiated by the materials employed (silk, wool, gold and silver threads, glass beads, paillettes, etc.), by the techniques (or nué (shaded gold), raised, couched and applied work, etc.), by their function (chasubles, dalmatics, antependia, chalice veils, altarpieces, etc.), by their iconography and by their artistic accomplishment. Some pieces of the collection are truly exceptional ; among them we can mention two altar frontal ornaments embroidered in the Escorial workshop during the last quarter of the XVI century, a late XVI century dalmatic from the Monastery of Monte Casino, a hood depicting the Resurrection of Christ from the set of king Fernando VI embroidered by Antonio Gomez de los Rios between 1743 and 1756 for the Chapel of the Royal Palace in Madrid, an altar frontal that was probably displayed during the inauguration of the Mafra Abbey near Lisbon on October 22nd 1730, and a rare raised work embroidery representing Mary Madeleine in front of her grotto.”


Some pieces of the collection have been presented in exhibits such as French Textiles in the Hartford Atheneum, Connecticut, USA, Fils de foi-chemins de soie at the Château de Chambord, France, Livres en Broderie at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris, and Jouer la Lumière at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.


The collection is today at the core of a project for the creation of an International Center for Artistic Embroidery in the medieval city of Mirepoix, in the southwest of France. Mirepoix is situated at the foot of the Pyrenees, 80 km from Toulouse, 50 km from Carcassonne and only 30 km from Montsegur, the mythic place of the Cathare history. The city develops around a medieval place surrounded by covered galleries (couverts), a gothic cathedral and an Episcopal Palace built by Philippe de Levis in the sixteenth century. The palace, once restored, can accommodate enough museum space to house the collection and to develop around it a certain number of activities, among them workshops, meetings and congresses, permanent and temporary exhibitions, continuum education on design, conservation, restoration and analysis of embroideries, cultural events, conferences and visits of other textile centres, and children activities.


An association aimed at gaining the support of the population of Mirepoix and the Ariège Department and at finding for individuals or companies willing to sponsor the project has been created.

 

Maison des Pyrénées, 15, rue Saint-Augustin, 75002 Paris 01.42.86.51.86 or mairie@mirepoix.fr

 

 

 


Contact Us | Subscribe | Fashionlines Archives | “Jewels By Christine” | Search

© 1998-2006 Fashionlines.com. All rights reserved.