A material record / Textile
Velvet
A woven cloth with a dense pile, once among the most expensive textiles of the Renaissance.
01 / Origin
Where it comes from.
Velvet is woven with a pile of extra threads. Cut and uncut pile give different surfaces, and voided velvets leave some areas without pile so a ground, sometimes of metal thread, shows through.
In Renaissance Italy, silk velvet was among the richest products of the silk industry because it needed skilled weavers. Genoa, Florence and Venice made it, and a weaver might complete no more than 60 metres in a year.
In the Atlas: Italy
02 / Colour
The colours it gives.
Sampled from the material, at the numbered points.
Pile turns light into a broad soft sheen, so one dyed colour shows as a bright crest and a near-black hollow.
- 01Sheen
#5F1316 - 02Body
#2C0204 - 03Hollow
#220102
03 / In the studies
Where it appears.
7 studies use it.
- Strasbourg ChristmasSoft pile / absorbed light
- Burgundy & BrassLustrous pile / deep tone
- Venetian BlushThe pile turns from dark wine to a brighter red along a fold.
- Tokyo Listening RoomA soft fold interrupts the straight lines of records and timber.
- Vienna Music SalonA soft, dark fold gives the room a quieter red.
- Edinburgh After DarkA dark pile gives a broad soft highlight along a fold.
- Paris Ballet SalonA deeper pile supplies the single theatrical accent.
Care
Brush velvet in the direction of the pile and keep it out of strong sun, which fades dyed silk.