Italian - Furnishing or Garment Fabric, 1475-1525

Italian

Furnishing or Garment Fabric, 1475-1525

Silk, cut voided velvet, shot and brocaded with gilt yarn , 152.4 x 58.4 cm (60 x 23 in.)

Commentary

American painter John Singer Sargent used this Italian voided velvet as inspiration for the background in his portrait of Mrs. Gardner in the Gothic Room on this floor.  In his rendering of the textile he enlarged the scale of its pattern some two or three times.