A Model of an Ancient Greek Loom

Author(s): Harriet Faxon

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 27, No. 3, Part 1 (Mar., 1932), pp. 7071
Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3255142 .
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BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

faces, where satin stitch is employed to

simulate flesh tints. Gold cord outlines the
draperies and other details of the pattern.
In the borders appear heraldic arms' which
would indicate an Italian provenance for
these pieces, though this type of embroidery was done also in Spain, in Flanders,
and in France. The small-checkered shield
is in itself inconclusive, since it was a device
common to many houses, but the blazon
appearing in the upper right corner- equipole, 5 points gold, 4 gules-was borne by
three houses only, two of them possessed of
no extraordinary distinction, the third, the
Terzago, however, being great and conspicuous people at the court of Ludovico
(Sforza) il Moro. It is entirely probable
therefore that the orphreys, once the adornment of some splendid vestment, were the
gift of a Terzago and a member of some
illustrious family united with them by marriage.
The lace flounce is one of those charming
pieces with a design of needlepoint applied
to a ground of machine-made net, a technique characteristic of the nineteenth century. The floral scrolls of the pattern are
worked in point de gage, a delicate type of
needlework that came into great favor
among the Brussels workers in the last half
of the century. Lace of this kind was used
generally as an adjunct to fashionable costume. It appears in the portraits of ladies
painted by Winterhalter, where it presents
an effect that is light and graceful.
The flounce and the orphreys will be
shown during the month of March in the
Room of Recent Accessions, after which
they will be added to the Museum's permanent collection of textiles in Wing H.
FRANCESLITTLE.

A MODEL OF AN ANCIENT
GREEK LOOM
for December,
In the Museum BULLETIN
1931, was published an Athenian jug' with a
picture of eleven women engaged in various
processes of wool working. The loom on
1 Deciphered by Robert T. Nichol of the Museum staff.
1 Now exhibited in the Third Classical Room
(acc. no. 31.11.10).

MUSEUM OF ART

which two of the women are weaving (fig. 2)

is of such exceptional interest that a model
has been made to show its practical qualities, and placed in Case 6 of the exhibition
illustrating the Daily Life of the Greeks and
Romans. The model (fig. I) is 5'2 by 512
inches, agreeing in size with an enlarged
photograph of the picture, and is made of
wood, as are also the shed rods, battens, and
shuttles. These and the weights, which are
of lead painted to imitate actual terracotta
weights, are all in proportion, but because
of their miniature size the weights are not
quite heavy enough to keep the warp
threads taut. Forty linen warp threads, as
counted in the photograph, are attached to
the cloth beam and tied to the weights in
groups of four; in this connection it is interesting to note that a weight is fastened to
each warp thread on all other looms known
to us in Greek vase paintings. It should also
be noted that the cloth beam is of the revolving type, and therefore the length of
cloth which could be woven was not limited
to the height of the loom. In order to supply
a warp long enough to account for the roll
on the cloth beam, extra lengths of thread
may have been wound about the weights or
looped behind them, but the picture does
not make this clear. The uptake of the warp
on the model is such that seven yards of
wool have been woven in, dyed to match as
nearly as possible the black and purple of
the garments on the vase.
A very interesting feature is the method
of attaching the warp threads to the crossbar at the bottom, shown in the picture by
small crosses. It was found that a continuous thread carried over the crossbar to the
left and right of each thread produced these
crosses, which act like the dents in the reed
of a modern loom in keeping the threads
separate. Although this crossbar could apparently be adjusted if desired-perhaps to
gain a little more space downward for weaving-its chief purpose seems to have been
the spreading of the warp. Its great weight
in a loom about five feet wide (such as this
must have been, judging from the height of
the weavers) would have prevented the use
which is made of the modern reed as a
beater. Small battens were therefore used to
beat the weft into place.
70

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BULLETIN

OF THE METROPOLITAN

The mostimportantpointbroughtout by

produced by altering the length of the shed

rods.
This vase painting has taught us more
about the methods and resourcefulness of
the Greek weavers than any other extant

the study of this Greek loom is the manner

of opening the shed. Hitherto the evidence
pointed to a single rod which opened a shed
across the entire width of the warp for the
first weft thread, making it necessary either
to carry the second weft thread across with
the shuttle before the shed rod could be
used again, or to remove and reinsert the
shed rod for every passage of the weft

representation.

A SPECIAL

middle of the line representing the shed rod.

This can be interpreted either as a failure of
the glaze at that point, or as indicating two
shed rods.2That the latter were intended is

I.

MODEL OF A GREEK

HARRIET FAXON.

EUROPEAN PRINTED FABRICS

OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY

thread.In our picturethere is a gap in the

FIG.

MUSEUM OF ART

EXHIBITION

A special exhibition of nineteenth-century printed fabrics from the Museum's

collection opened in Gallery H 15 on Sun-

FIG. 2.

LOOM

DETAIL

OF VASE

PAINTING

day, March 13, to continue through October 2. Included among these textiles is a

suggested by actual experiments, for these

showed that two short rods could be inserted in the warp in such a way as to form
a shed on each side. In the model the rods
were started over the first warp thread on
each edge, covering alternate threads until
the center was reached. When two women
were at work on a large loom it was therefore possible for one to open the shed on her
side and, after passing the shuttle through,
to weave with it from the center to the edge
of the warp; the other woman would then
open the shed on her side and proceed in the
same way. To divide a large warp in halves
in this manner was to effect a great saving
in time and labor. It also permitted greater
freedom for special weaving, such as lengthwise borders on garments, which could be

noteworthy group of fabrics recently presented to the Museum by John Sloane. A

splendid toile de Jouy designed by J. B.
Huet and other important printed cottons,
such as Caravans of Cairo and Les Horaces,
after a painting by David, are contained in
this welcome gift.1

The majority of our textiles are of French

manufacture,2 of the first half of the nineteenth century. They are often more amus1 Mr. Sloane's gift includes six nineteenthcentury printed cottons, five French and one
English. Two printed cottons and one woodblock for cotton printing, French, eighteenthcentury, also the gift of Mr. Sloane, are displayed
this month in the Room of Recent Accessions.
2 Many fabrics were made in manufactories at
Nantes and Rouen and in Alsace, as well as in
the famous one at Jouy. A history of these manu-

2 Cf. BULLETIN, December, 1931, p. 294, note

21,

71

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