The Art and Archaeology of Lusignan and Venetian Cyprus (1192–1571): Recent Research and New Discoveries. Michalis Olympios and Maria Parani, eds. Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages 12. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019. 442 pp. €125.
Boursette, wife of the textile trader Huart Wallois, sold three black textile chambers to the duchess of Burgundy after the death of John the Fearless in 1419, as Wilson notes. In chapter 1, Wilson establishes the main suppliers of textiles, identifying a small group of preferred dealers, their locations, and the period of their activity, from Jacquet Dourdin of Paris to Pasquier Grenier of Tournai. Wilson argues that these individuals depended on social networks to obtain materials, produce the textiles, and provide additional services such as hanging and repair. In turn, the textile dealers sometimes took on significant service roles at the Burgundian court, for example, as varlet de chambre. Benefiting perhaps from court positions and extensive social networks, they also often held leadership roles in their communities. Wilson explores the use of textiles in the Burgundian dominions in chapter 2, seeing these woven works as flexible architecture. Usually installed as sets of coordinated hangings, bed covers, and pillow covers, known as chambres, these textiles could set the tone of a room, be keyed to the room’s purpose, and even create discreet spaces within a larger room. In both domestic and ecclesiastical settings, Wilson argues, textiles acted as surrogates for their owners, whether duke or merchant, embodying in their imagery and materiality the status of their owner. In chapter 3,Wilson looks at the practice of gift giving and the role of textiles as a means to bind social relationships. The presentation of tapestries with carefully calculated imagery could affirm a political partnership or signify a more precarious relationship. Textiles could deliver an indirect, diplomatic message, serving as tools to forge or unbind social or political ties. Wilson ends with an epilogue on the practice of repairing and reusing tapestries and textiles. As textiles moved from owner to owner, they carried the memory of their former lives. Meticulous care of tapestries, Wilson argues, reflected the significant social currency of these textiles, one that rivaled the value of their visual beauty and materiality. With a wealth of documentary references,Wilson’s book not only adds to the current discussion of tapestries and Burgundian social history but spotlights the late medieval entrepreneurs who supplied those tapestries and the intricate networks they forged.