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Rugs and fabrics > 1500 > Lampas fragment, pink and yellow silk on linen with stylized lions and eagles, Lucca or Venice (?), Italy, 15-16th century.
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| Lampas fragment, pink and yellow silk on linen with stylized lions and eagles, Lucca or Venice (?), Italy, 15-16th century. | Description: For more than 150 years, an important branch of the silk route terminated in Venice.
Access to exotically patterned goods expanded the design repertory available to Italian textile designers, such as horizontally banded patterns from Islamic Spain and the middle east, and plant and animal motifs from Iran, central Asia, and China.
As a result, late Gothic period Italian luxury silks from Venice and Lucca were some of the most imaginative in the history of European silk design.
The lampas was a very rich textile created with a background weft, plus disconnected effects made with supplementary wefts that formed a particular design on the fabric.
The warp was formed of silk threads to create the satin backing, as opposed to a lesser number of threads, that were needed to hold the weave together.
The ornamental motif stands out very clearly from the backing and therefore this technique also made it possible to carry out monochrome woven textiles where the design can be seen very clearly.
As lampas is a rather heavy fabric, it was greatly used in furnishings. It was already in use in the 10th century and reached its greatest heights of popularity in the 16th century.
Condition report: good but it may be improved through restoration.
Provenance: Adolph Loewi, Venice, stock number 3941; Alessandro Morandotti, Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, Rome.
During the winter of 1937-1938 a major exhibition entitled 'L'antico tessuto d'arte italiana' was shown in Rome.
Only three private collections were represented in the exhibition. One of these private collections was Adolph Loewi's from Venice. He presented eighteen pieces.
Adolph Loewi (Munich, Germany 1888 - 1977 Hawaii, U.S.A.), honorary German consul in Venice in 1923, was a dealer of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts. He was the leading dealer of textiles and costumes, selling to major collectors and museums in the U.S.A and Europe.
Much of LACMA’s (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) rich textile collection and its extensive archive of documentation related to the field came from Loewi.
A German Jew, he established his business in Venice in 1911 and a branch in New York in 1933-34.
In early 1939 he left Italy with his family consequently to Mussolini's race laws; they brought with them personal possessions and much of their stock.
Settling first in New York, they moved to Beverly Hills in the Summer of 1939. In Los Angeles the firm of Adolph Loewi, Inc., was divided; the textile business became known as Loewi-Robertson and was directed by his daughter and son-in-law.
Adolph Loewi probably acquired the fabric here proposed before the second world war. According to Katherine Loewi Robertson, daughter of Adolph Loewi, and, with her husband, successor to his firm, works of art acquired in Venice before the second world war have stock numbers below 9300.
The director of Loewi's gallery of art, was Mr. Alessandro Morandotti (1909-1979).
According to Katherine Loewi Robertson, Morandotti resigned a position at La Scala of Milano in 1936 rather than wear the black shirt of the Fascists. Impressed by Morandotti’s integrity, Adolph Loewi hired him as the director of his antiques firm in Venice.
When Loewi, a Jew, fled Italy in early 1939, he turned the firm over to Morandotti for safekeeping.
Morandotti moved to Rome, where he established the firm as 'Antiquaria', concealing the fact that it continued to be owned by a Jew.
After the war, Morandotti returned the firm to Loewi, who sold it to Morandotti in 1950.
According to Katherine Loewi Robertson, the items of his father's gallery with the stocks number after 9300 indicates that they were acquired by Morandotti in Rome during and after the war.
| | Age: C. 15-16th century | | Dimensions: 42 inch. x 23,5 inch. (m. 1,07 x 0,60 m) | | Price: Sold | | Item n°: RC 76 |
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