In yesterday's post we looked at a fabric exhibition at the Museo del Tessuto (Textile Museum) in Prato . Let's remain in Prato for another post and look at a study carried out at the museum by a team of researchers who managed to recreate a Medieval felt wool cloth originally used for a cloak donned by Francesco di Marco Datini (1335-1410).
The Prato-based merchant is known for having left behind a lot of letters, notes and even fabric samples that helped historians understanding better the role and duties of a merchant in those years.
The research about this particular fabric consisted in a sort of philological study, involving also other disciplines such as history and archaeology.
The project started indeed with studying the historical sources and observing the original samples preserved at the State Archive in Prato.
This first phase allowed the researchers to find out key technical data about the wool cloth production, from the spinning to the processing, and to start producing a sample as similar as possible to the original textile.
The fabric was then recreated in a range of colours – scarlet red, green and blue – also thanks to further collaborations with the local Istituto di Storia Economica Datini di Prato, the Florence-based Opificio delle pietre dure (Workshop of semi-precious stones), and local yarn and textile companies including Fondazione Lisio, Filatura Papi Fabio and Rifinizione Santo Stefano.
Francesco di Marco Datini's red cloak and blue costume were the first to be made: they were based on the style provided by archaeological and iconographic studies and inspired by the clothes Datini wears in the Trinity painting by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (Datini is portrayed in the painting with his wife Margherita and daughter Ginevra).
The pieces were then put on display at the museum together with a copy of a chasuble, mitre and stole donated to Pope Francis when he visited Prato last year.
The main aim of the project was giving a new life to a local fabric and showing how it could be employed for new applications.
The museum, that showcased the fabric also at the Milano Unica event in September, will keep on developing further studies about the rediscovered Medieval cloth and will organise a day of lectures about it.
It took the textile experts at the museum three years to recreate the fabric, a considerable amount of time compared to the fast rhythms of the fashion industry. But the project reminds us all that conducting quality researches takes time, patience and persistence.
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