Table Runner

Levant / Palestinian-inspired Embroidery

This textile is a contemporary machine-embroidered piece on black velvet; a commercially produced souvenir textile incorporating Palestinian embroidery motifs.

Its design sits at the intersection of textile tradition and contemporary reproduction: an older regional vocabulary of floral arabesques, symmetrical medallions, architectural frames, and velvet is translated into a machine-produced decorative object.

The embroidery is very dense and highly programmed, consistent with computerized or machine embroidery rather than older mechanical embroidery.

  • The flowers are not particularly botanical or naturalistic. Instead, they belong to a vocabulary of stylized Islamic and Levantine floral ornament, in which flowers, leaves, stems, and scrolling vines are arranged in highly symmetrical compositions.

    Palestinian embroidery has a long tradition of elaborate floral and geometric ornament. Velvet was historically used for important garments, particularly in the Bethlehem and Hebron area. Black was also an important ground for Palestinian women's dress, with colored embroidery providing the visual decoration.

    This textile belongs to a visual lineage in which dark velvet provides a dramatic ground for elaborate floral ornament.

 

  • Title: Velvet Table Runner

  • Date: 2018

  • Geography: Israel

  • Medium: Velvet, cotton embroidery

  • Dimensions: H. 48 in.  W. 26.5 in.

  • Provenance: Gift from Alex Lanzetta

  • Inventory Number:  IS.01