‘BIZARRE’ MOTIFS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CROATIA

 

Croatia had a modest level of textile production during the eighteenth-century. Other than limited, it was also very expensive.

In the late seventeenth-and early eighteenth-century Europe, fabrics with˝Bizarre˝motifs were very popular.

˝Bizzare˝style was described as a flowery decor filled with abstract elements.

Luxurious ˝Bizzare˝motifs were emphasized with gold and silver threads.

Floral decoration was made out of coloured threads.

 

The Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb acquired a skirt made from silk fabric in gold and yellow with˝Bizzare˝motifs.

 

 

On the brocaded yellow satin background we can see branches, leaves, flowers, and vases in pink, green and blue. Among these are meandering decorative motifs made from metal thread.

The skirt is made up of seven panels of silk. Its overall width is 3.5 meters and the length is 1 meter.

 

 

The port of Split grew in the sixteenth-century, becoming one of the most important trading points between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic, particularly in the trading of fabrics.

Fashionable eighteenth-century clothes were expensive. They were made from imported silk, velvet, brocade, fine cloth, and lace.

The style was not far behind Italian fashion.

Rich women would go to Ancona or Venice where they would order dresses and other decorative items like fans, gloves, scarves, handbags and other items.

 

By Tina Njegovec, Osnovna škola˝Podrute˝