BANDERA EMBROIDERY
ASSOCIAZIONE AMICI DEL RICAMO BANDERA
ENGLISH PAGE IN CONSTRUCTION
Chaired by Anna Ghigo, the ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS OF BANDERA EMBROIDERY was established in 1999 on the initiative of the Chierese Foundation for Textiles and the Textile Museum, where it operates steadily with the aim of safeguarding the Piedmontese tradition of Bandera embroidery, spreading and protecting its peculiarities of drawing and embroidery.
The Association carries out historical-artistic research and divulgation through conferences and editorial productions, among which they are mentioned As I teach you Bandera embroidery (DVD, 2007) and The art of painting needle (2009).
An embroidery school, inherited from the Marquise Eleonora Incisa della Rocchetta, is kept alive in the operational and exhibition headquarters of the Association, holding theoretical-practical courses with expert teachers, during which embroideries are performed with different levels of difficulty, reproducing or reinterpreting preserved designs in the ancient and substantial archive of the institution, but also by innovating the tradition with new designs.
The Association also organizes temporary events, such as the "Bandera Day" (sala della Porta del Tessile, 2-3 October 2021), and thematic exhibitions in which historical and contemporary embroideries are displayed, performed with this historic technique of "ad needle".
THE BANDER FABRIC
The Chieri origins of the Bandera fabric, from which the embroidery that is done on it takes its name, are attested in the Statute of the Fustian Art (1482) of the city of Chieri. In this precious manuscript, exhibited in an anastatic copy at the Textile Museum, there is mention of a fabric, initially of hemp and then of cotton, made with regular motifs in relief, with parallel lines or honeycomb, white or slightly ecru, used for militia uniforms and livery personnel, as well as for ordinary linen. At the Textile Museum it is also possible to see a functioning dobby loom on which the Bandera fabric is made, right next to a small section dedicated to Bandera embroidery, with materials, a learner, an example from 1760 and a contemporary reinterpretation of it performed by Anna Ghigo.
THE BANDERA EMBROIDERY
Bandera embroidery” appeared in Piedmont in an era of strong French influence, i.e. at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but most likely its origins are Anatolian and older. Bandera embroidery, which is done with lightly twisted wool thread, consists in the reproduction of elaborate polychrome decorative motifs, mostly in roccaille and rococo, which have a central part with a floral or anthropomorphic subject and a frame in the form of a shaded colored ribbon.
There are four fundamental points of this technique: the launched point also called point painting, since it allows to obtain enchanting pictorial effects due to the richness of nuances; the chain stitch, used above all for the outlines of volutes and friezes; grass stitch to embroider stems, twigs, veins of leaves; finally the knot stitch for small motifs.
