'Informed Seeing': Reading the Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Cabinet at Milton Manor House through its Historical and Social Contexts. (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pullan, Amanda
• Is Part Of: Textile history. Volume 47:Number 1(2016)
• Page Start: 49
• Page End: 59
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Textile fabrics -- History -- Periodicals; Textile industry -- History -- Periodicals; Clothing and dress -- History -- Periodicals; 746.09005
• DOI: 10.1080/00404969.2016.1144700
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0040-4969

Abstract

Abstract : This object lesson examines a seventeenth-century cabinet, held at Milton Manor House in Oxfordshire, which has been embroidered with biblical scenes. Starting from the premise that knowledge informs seeing, this article provides a close reading of the cabinet's iconography and historical context in order to highlight the knowledge — both the general ideologies and the individual interpretation — that may have informed its production. Through a detailed reading, the maker's negotiation of the virtue of submissiveness, a major tenet of women's education in the period, is identified as a possible theme.