IMC 2009: Sessions

Session 301: Decoration and Disguise

Monday 13 July 2009, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:	DISTAFF: Discussion, Interpretation & Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics & Fashions
Organiser:	Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Department of English & American Studies, University of Manchester
Moderator/Chair:	Elizabeth Coatsworth, now retired
Paper 301-a	Dress Detail in the Alabaster Tombs at All Saints Church, Harewood (Language: English) Elizabeth S. Benns, Soper Lane, Baldock Index terms: Art History - Sculpture, Daily Life
Paper 301-b	Church Embroideries of the Anglo-Saxon Period (Language: English) Alexandra M. Lester-Makin, School of History of Art & Design, Manchester Metropolitan University Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Biblical Studies, Ecclesiastical History
Paper 301-c	Shape-Shifting in the Early Christian North: The Animal Skin as Costume or Disguise (Language: English) Michelle A. Nordtorp Madson, Department of Art History, University of St Thomas, Minnesota Index terms: Art History - Decorative Arts, Folk Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Abstract	Is decoration on clothing simply ornament, or does it indicate something symbolic? Dress detail on tomb effigies may be authentic, or representative of a costume the dead person never wore. Ecclesiastical embroideries can turn an ecclesiastic into a walking biblical narrative. Secular tales can involve deception and embroidered versions use disguise to convey their themes. Shape-shifting, pagan northern mythological creatures who changed from human to animal, came to be explained in Christian times as taking on a costume or disguise.