Underside Couching in the Byzantine World

Abstract

Abstract: It has long been a shared assumption of textile specialists that the underside couching technique was used exclusively in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. England is the most renowned medieval center of gold embroidery in this technique, although sporadic examples are known from other centers, particularly in Italy. Works of gold embroidery that employ underside couching, no matter how Byzantine their stylistic appearance, have been attributed to Western workshops based on the principle that the Byzantines were ignorant of the technique. New information, however, should prompt a reevaluation of this assumption. Several examples that have recently come to light from the regions north of the Black Sea suggest that the Byzantines and their Slavic neighbors may have experimented with the underside couching technique in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.

Keywords

• Byzantine world
• England
• Middle Ages
• underside couching technique