Julia Nurse is a Collections Research Lead at Wellcome Collection with a long career within the museum field. She has a particular interest in Early Modern European print cultures, particularly in relation to science, health, and medicine. In this post, Julia reflects on the use of textiles in printed materials that were designed for religious purposes.

The material production of prints before the 19^th century was often complex, involving multiple contributors. Studying the richly layered histories of prints and their use can reveal much about their contexts. Add to these textile additions, and you have a more embroidered story. 

Four examples of prints on textiles from Wellcome Collection highlight a range of uses and purposes from personal salvation to political validation. It could be said that the value of using fabric rather than paper brought the user materially closer to God, either for personal religious solace of the soul but also as reassurance for bodily health and wellbeing. The following examples demonstrate how textiles were deliberately chosen for their material benefits rather than paper substrates for various devotional contexts.

1. Sacred calendar prints

Calendar of the Cathedral Church of Osnabrück, 1799, a rare survival of an engraving on silk by J. & J. Klauber, collection ref: 47257i

Although this calendar was produced for display in the Catholic church of Osnabrück, in Austria, the motive for its production was primarily political. The French Revolution of the 1790s had a devastating impact in France, essentially shutting down the Catholic Church, seizing and selling its properties, closing its monasteries and schools and exiling most of its leaders. Ostentatious prints such as this one that promoted Catholicism in countries still supporting the religion were perhaps a way of compensating for this. The lettering names Prince Frederick (the youngest son of George III) (1763-1827) as Bishop of Osnabrück and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a title he was given at the age of six months in 1764. His reputation clearly needed bolstering in 1799 when this calendar was published, a period in which Frederick experienced military setbacks as Commander-in-chief of the British army, prompting the now famous rhyme mocking his failure, “The Grand Old Duke of York“.

No expense has been spared with the production, possibly for all the reasons above. It is printed on yellow silk with the central calendar section printed in black and red letterpress on paper that was presumably updated annually. This was no average broadsheet engraving, i.e. a large format print designed for public display. Silk was a stronger substrate than paper, making it ideal for hanging in the church setting.

The man portrayed in the upper right, kneeling next to St Peter’s Cathedral, Osnabrück, is named in the roundel below as Franciscus Ludovicus Hermannus Freiherr von Hacke, a nobleman and secular canon of the cathedral and perhaps the patron of the print. Further roundels name other noble families with their coat of arms, possibly other donors of the church such as the Austrian Herberstein family. A view of the city of Osnabrück is at the bottom just in case anyone was in any doubt about where the church was located.  The engravers, the Klauber family, were not just printmakers but fine art publishers from Augsburg, Germany. Franz Christoph Klauber established a catholic fine art publishing company in 1737 with Gottfried Bernhard Göz (1708–1774). These one-sheet heraldic calendars are now rare in collections outside Germany. Wellcome Collection may only have one example, but the Bamberg State Library has almost 190 examples (some of which they exhibited in 2018) that were commissioned by the prince-bishop, the cathedral or the city council.

2. Wearing prints

A tiny 18^th century engraving on red silk depicting the adoration of the magi with an inscription of prayer against disease which was intended to be worn by the owner collection ref. 22200i,

In contrast to the calendar, this tiny 18^th century engraving of the Adoration of the Magi had a more personal religious connection. Printed on red silk, it was intended to be sewn on clothing to protect the wearer from disease. A similar print of the magi, also on red silk, is illustrated in M. Beer and U. Rehm, ‘Das kleine Andachtsbild’ [The Little Devotional Picture] (Hildesheim 2004, pp. 10-11). The lettering, “Attigit reliquias” means that the cloth had touched the reliquary containing the bodies or heads of the magi in Cologne cathedral where the relics have been housed since the 12^th century. Further text translates as ‘H.H. Caspar Melchior Balthasar [the 3 Kings who represented the Biblical Magi] asks God to pray for us of fever-falling sickness’ [epilepsy].

It was probably related to a similar print in Wellcome Collection, also on red silk, bearing 2 prayers to the three magi which would have been separated for attaching to clothing, a sign that they were printed in multiples. A similar print on yellow silk was acquired in 2016 for Penn Libraries collection in Pennsylvania. This version is believed to date around 1750 and also features a view of Cologne. More interestingly, this version also bears the signature of the German engraver Elizabeth Maria Wyon (active 1738-55) later Lamblotte, suggesting that women were employed in the production of these silk amulets. Was she the engraver of the example in Wellcome Collection, or was she one of a production line of women practicing this craft as a form of church tourism?

3. Dressed prints

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: he kneels before a vision of the Virgin and Christ Child. Line engraving by M. Brandi, 1788, after J. Camaron. | Wellcome Collection – 3667i

The subject of this religious scene is the ‘Lactatio Bernardi’, the squirting of the Virgin’s breast milk on to St Bernard. Otherwise known as ‘The Nursing Madonna’, the subject was popular in painting until the Council of Trent in 1563 when it was discouraged, at least in public contexts, on grounds of propriety.

Swatches of fabric have been pasted down onto the sheet, leaving the rest to be made up in penwork and coloured inks, a French technique known as gravure habillée. The print is literally dressed in textile fragments, intimately assembled and closely combined with paper to create a collaged effect. Wastepaper appears to have been used to support the print. Both the artist of the original design of this print, José Cameron Bonanat (1731-1803) and the engraver, Mariano Brandi (fl.776–1824) were Spanish though embroidered prints are considered rare from this region – the tradition tends to be practiced more in France according to examples known to have survived.  

It is not so unusual to see embroidered objects from this period. Textiles were widely used from the 17th century for the decoration of religious and domestic objects. High-quality pieces were commissioned from professional workshops, sometimes for display in private chapels. This print was probably embroidered by an amateur needlewoman for display within the home later than the original print. The textual additions may have been thought to bring the owner closer, materially, to the subjects and themes being depicted. There is scant research on these types of print because they also appear to be rare in collections, or simply difficult to trace within collection records because of the lack of knowledge about the producers/embroiderers involved.

4. Processional prints

An 19^th century version of the veronica (sudarium of Saint Veronica), representing the face of Christ, an engraving printed on linen bearing the seal of the Confraternity of the Holy Face. 31246i .

This engraving has been printed on linen to replicate the original version of the veronica and was designed to be worn or attached to a banner and displayed in processions by members of the Confraternity. Devotion to the Holy Face of Christ had flourished since the late medieval and early modern periods. The ‘Veronica’, or sudarium, meaning a cloth for wiping sweat. were said to be versions of the miraculous ‘true likeness’ of Christ housed in St Peter’s Rome.  It was believed the cloth was offered to Christ by St Veronica on the road to Calvary. On receiving it back she discovered Christ’s features miraculously imprinted on it. By wearing or holding a piece of cloth with alleged connections to Christ brought the user closer to God. This devotional practice was revived in the 19^th century, the period in which this version was produced, by Sister Marie de St. Pierre (1816-1848), a Carmelite nun from Tours, France. It still runs today in the form of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face.

Conclusion

Exploring the format and context of these 4 types of prints on textile suggests they are all rarely found in collections today but would warrant further study. Three of them bear evidence of women’s contributions: Sister Marie de St. Pierre’s revival of the Veronica, Elizabeth Maria Lamblotte’s engravings of the silk prayers designed to be worn on the body, and the anonymous embroiderer, likely a woman, of the St Bernard ‘dressed print’. In contrast, the high-status calendar print speaks of patriarchal and elite practices embedded within Catholicism in the late 18^th century. Whether they were displayed in the church as a promotional tool for Catholicism, hung in the domestic environment for personal religious devotion, or worn by the wearer as a form of protection against disease or simply to bring the user closer to God – in each case, the materiality of the engraved product is central to how the owners interacted with it,

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