Making Women´s History Visible in Europe
A European Learning Partnership (Grundtvig 2)
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Esther: A Bride
The Benaki museum on the internet
I was
very positively surprised to find that the Benaki webpage (www.benaki.gr)
offered the possibility to explore the different rooms and galleries by means of
a simple click on the room number. At the beginning I was misled because I
thought that the only picture they showed was the one that appeared when you
clicked on the gallery number. But then I realized that if I moved the mouse,
the picture rotated with it and I could see the whole room and not just a
partial view of it. What the initial pictures show has nothing to do with
women’s culture; it is only when you turn it around that it discloses (not
fully) the rich collections of their handicrafts and art, though the quality of
the pictures is not that good.
Luckily, I bought a few postcards of embroidery work when I was at the
museum that I can now show you in detail. I chose embroidery to make my
commentary because needlework (referring to any of the various devices for
carrying thread and making stitches, including knitting, crochet, lace making,
embroidery, beadwork, plain sewing, quilting, and rug hooking) was the only
acceptable outlet for creativity allowed women in the past. Whereas men could
use brushes and paints, pencils or pens in order to give free rein to their
artistic desire, women were basically limited to the use of the needle to
express their personal style, social concerns, and creative talent. Thus, from
very early on in humankind’s culture women have taken the needle in order to
fulfil various basic needs: on the one hand, they sewed out of sheer practical
necessity, since they were responsible for the making of all the household
linens (sheets, bedspreads, towels, etc.) and family clothing. Besides, if they
were good with their hands they could often earn (and save) money with which to
contribute to the usually scarce income provided by the husband, often the sole
breadwinner. Needlework also helped women of leisure to keep busy in their idle
hours; others less favoured used their needlework to make gifts, calm nerves or
help others in need. On the other hand, fine handiwork fulfilled a need for
aesthetic expression that resulted in the creation of beautiful works of art.
However, so long as women’s craft was not of the kind valued as ‘high’ art –or
even ‘art’ for that matter—, it was simply destined to be put to everyday use in
the household rather than exhibited in museums. Fortunately, our art history,
partly represented in formerly despised women’s needlework, is currently a
fascinating, very valuable part of the collections in the majority of the
world’s most important museums; the pieces that now hang on their walls behind
protective glass are worth millions and some of them are really priceless.
The Benaki museum in Athens has a good sample of women’s amazing
needlework artistry. A couple of the exhibition halls on the first floor display
objects which were probably part of the usual trousseaus that young women/brides
sewed themselves and kept very well preserved in big chests until the moment
they got married. Trousseaus consisted basically of the essential bedding pieces
(sheets, pillows, bedspreads, cushions) together with other household items that
the bride considered she could use in her new home, such as rugs. Embroideries
were also meant to be part of the bridal decoration of the house; they usually
carried flower compositions, bridal processions, birds and other motifs.
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The first embroidery (fig.1) was made in Ioannina in the
18th century; it shows a bridegroom and a bride holding a
flower in their hands, captured perhaps in the moment of exchanging
them, as an expressive gesture of the giving and taking necessary in a
blissful, successful matrimony; it may also represent in a symbolic way
the exchange of marital vows. The animals that surround the couple (see
the peacocks at the bottom of the picture) may be a sign representing
the plenty and the beauty they will share in their united lives. The
towers, which signify the home, reveal two babies at the windows that
may stand for the children they hope to have and be blessed with in the
future. Women did thus inscribe themselves in a picture that they
created to immortalise a crucial moment in their life histories, a
moment they had been prepared for, and grew up expecting, since they
came into the world. |
Fig. 1 |
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The figure in the middle wears all the attributes and adornments of a bride (earrings, crown, a colourful cape, highly embroidered gown); she is accompanied by other figures that range from animals (cocks and four-legged beasts of difficult (at least to me) classification) to human beings who may well represent friends, and/or perhaps her father and mother as well, people who were dear and close to the bride. One of these figures, on the right side of the picture, however, has been embroidered with what I think is a great deal of humour, for it shows a man with an angry gesture on his face and with his hands sort of strangling his neck (who knows if in desperation…), perhaps as a warning to the bride of what he would be capable of doing if he laid hands on her (has she abandoned him for another one?!). In spite of his terrible expression, the bride looks straight ahead, oblivious to anything that is not her own happiness and future, which she seems to await with a wide smile on her face. |
Fig. 2 |
These textile pieces were in fact, as the meaning of the word itself reveals, texts composed with thread together with very personal designs that were brought together to tell a story, both at the level of the personal and of the aesthetic. I believe it is important to see such examples of women’s art forms and what they have to say through them. Their personal concerns, their hopes and woes, everything that really mattered to them is there for us to share in, enjoy, and pride ourselves on.