"Dialoghi in seta" - SETA. Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo

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"Dialoghi in seta" - SETA. Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo

From 10 to 26 May 2024, the rooms of the piano nobile of Palazzo Moroni host the exhibition “Dialogues in Silk”: ten precious fragments of ancient silks, created between the 16th and 20th centuries, from the Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio’s collection of antique textiles.

The event dedicated to the Art of Silk at Palazzo Moroni.

A silk thread runs through the history of Palazzo Moroni: the fortune of the family who built and inhabited it for almost four centuries has been based since the sixteenth century on the textile trade, to which the cultivation of mulberry trees was added in the seventeenth century. The tree features prominently in the family crest, echoes in the surname (morus in Latin, murù in the Bergamasque dialect), and blossoms in spring in the palace’s vegetable garden.

Three days dedicated to the Art of Silk, exploring the fascinating story of the phases of its natural cycle, from the central role that its production activities have played in the history and culture of Lombardy and in the fortune of the Moroni family, to the contemporary and future expressions of its manufacturing traditions.

Through a study day, special guided tours, themed workshops, meetings with authors and textile design experts, installations, exhibition itineraries and an eclectic market exhibition, the event will offer an unprecedented narrative of the palace and its territory, combining past and future through the precious testimony of an ancient excellence.

Study Day and Workshops

The first event of this edition was a study day dedicated to textile and silk production, from the art of spinning to weaving, covering the period between the 14th and 21st centuries. At the Teatro Sant’Andrea in Città Alta, scholars, communicators, experts and professionals from the sector presented their research to the public, offering an in-depth exploration of the historical, economic, social, artistic and costume-related aspects connected to silk culture at Palazzo Moroni and within the Lombard context.

In collaboration with the University of Milan, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio of Florence, NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale and Taroni.

PROGRAMME 10–11–12 MAY 2024 --> https://fondoambiente.it/il-fai/beni/seta-a-palazzo-e-giardini-moroni/programma

Free textile workshops were held on 11 and 12 May. In particular, the following workshops took place:

Curated by Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio of Florence and Fondazione Chierese per il Tessile e per il Museo del Tessile

Saturday 11 MAY – by reservation

11:00 | Natural Dyeing Workshop
14:30 | Lace Knotting Workshop
16:00 | Tablet Weaving Workshop

Sunday 12 MAY – by reservation

11:00 | Natural Dyeing Workshop
14:30 | Frame Loom Weaving Workshop
16:00 | Finger Weaving Workshop

Dialogues in Silk

ten precious fragments of ancient silks

On the occasion of the event, from 10 to 26 May 2024, the rooms of the piano nobile of Palazzo Moroni host the exhibition Dialogues in Silk: ten precious fragments of ancient silks, created between the 16th and 20th centuries, weave a dialogue with the atmospheres and details of the seventeenth- and nineteenth-century rooms of the Bergamo residence; their colour palettes, as well as their textures and decorative motifs, recall the frescoes, paintings and tapestries of the collections.The exhibition itinerary, spread throughout all the rooms of the Palazzo, offers the opportunity for an unprecedented visit experience entirely dedicated to the theme of silk: the noble fibre at the centre of this story, which contributed to creating the fame and fortune of the Moroni family.

The archival silks come from the collection of antique textiles of the Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio.

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The Exhibition

Silk and linen brocatelle

Golden Age Hall

The textile is part of a Florentine production datable between 1530 and 1550. The design is characterized by a graphic composition of closed lattice patterns with a pinecone at the centre, a motif widely diffused from the end of the 15th century onwards. The garlands defining the lattice enclose four double-scroll motifs that serve as frames for the pinecones. This type of design was created using very sumptuous techniques, such as silk satins brocaded with gold and silver or brocatelles. The exhibited textile is made in brocatelle, a widely used textile technique that employs silk and linen in the weft: it gives relief to the designs and also allows production costs to be contained. In this case, there is also a silver lamé weft that lends brightness to the overall composition. The translation of this design into velvet was carried out in 1909 by the Arte della Seta Lisio of Florence.

The clothing worn by Gian Gerolamo Grumelli, known as the Knight in Pink, portrayed by the famous painter Giovanni Battista Moroni, is made of silk satin (coral red) with embroidery in silver threads and is chronologically close to the exhibited textile. The portrait is in fact dated 1560 and the garment reflects the fashion of the mid-16th century. During this period, the colours pink and red were symbols of wealth due to the rarity of the materials and the complexity of the dyeing processes.

Two-tone silk damask

Giants’ Hall

The textile, made of two-tone damask, features a motif that was very fashionable between the end of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century. During this period, the production of fabrics for upholstery began to distinguish itself from that of textiles intended for clothing. The former featured large-scale patterns, while the latter had smaller pattern repeats. In this case, we are looking at a decoration with small motifs outlined by lobed leaves with an S-shaped movement, arranged in alternating opposing rows. Textiles are made up of two systems of threads: the vertical threads are called the “warp”, while the horizontal threads are called the “weft”. Damask is a technique that uses the two faces (warp face and weft face) of a weave structure (the type of interlacing of warp and weft threads). In this way, the glossy effect of the warp face contrasts with the matte effect of the weft face, contributing to the definition of the design. In this case, the contrast is further emphasised by the different colours of the warp and weft.

The sinuous quality of the textile’s design recalls the twisting movements of the bodies of the Giants in the room’s vault. The depiction of the colossi, highly sculptural in appearance, is inspired by the Mannerist serpentine figures and strikes the viewer by creating the sensation of the Giants’ real fall from above, defeated by Jupiter.

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Jacquard-woven silk

Hall of Hercules

The fragment recalls a series of adjoining ribbons. More specifically, the design unfolds in S-shaped scrolls alternating with flowers. Ribbon production became particularly important from the 17th century onwards, especially for clothing but also for furnishings—for example, as borders on furniture and wall hangings. From the beginning of the 19th century, the invention of the Jacquard machine introduced the automatic control of individual warp threads, revolutionising the weaving of figured textiles. The same mechanism was also applied to ribbon weaving, as in the example displayed here.

The textile’s design recalls the 20th-century wall covering created by the last heir of the family, Lucretia Moroni, who decided to entrust Palazzo Moroni to the FAI. Born in 1960, Lucretia trained as a painter and decorator at the Van Der Kelen Institute in Brussels. Since 1985, she has lived in New York, where she founded the workshop fatto a mano by LM, which also produces screen-printed silks. The textile in the Hall of Hercules was designed and installed by Lucretia in the 1990s. The ribbon motif also appears on several pieces of furniture, such as the wooden table inlaid with flowers and garlands beside the window of the Hall of Hercules.

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Striped silk satin, chiné à la branche

Hall of Jerusalem Delivered

The displayed example is a highly refined textile, fashionable between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. It is a striped fabric, but with a shaded motif (chiné) alternating with the stripes, obtained through the dyeing of groups of warp threads (à la branche). Widely used for the creation of garments, this textile is characterised by being particularly lightweight and lustrous.

The stripes also stand out in the coverings of the ballroom sofas, made of gold and red silk, which were restored in the 20th century at the request of the Moroni family.

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Silk cannetillé with supplementary weft

Yellow Room

The image depicted on the textile can be found in the ornamentation of furniture and upholstery fabrics between the fourth and sixth decades of the 19th century. In this case, the angel is rendered in high definition, made possible in weaving through the introduction of the Jacquard machine. Through accurate preparation of the design drafts and the subsequent punching of the cards inserted into the machine, this new technology made it possible to render bodies in a pictorial and three-dimensional manner.

The three-dimensional effect can also be found in the frescoes of the frieze in the Yellow Room, which depict a Centauromachy. The style is of late Neoclassical taste and is executed using the illusionistic technique of trompe-l'œil: the painting skilfully creates the illusion of a carved bas-relief. On the vault, sinuous vegetal elements, putti, and allegorical figures alternate instead.

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Silk damask

Pink Room

The selected damask is characterised by a type of design typical of fine figured textiles from the mid-18th century onwards, which remained in use for around thirty years. This is the “meander” pattern: sinuous and parallel stems onto which bouquets of flowers and leaves are grafted. Widely used for clothing, it also appears in furnishings, where the pattern repeat is larger.

The textile is connected to the colour of the room’s upholstery, which features original motifs of flowers, butterflies, and oriental birds. Three rooms in the 19th-century private wing of Palazzo Moroni have silk-covered walls and have recently been restored by the FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano, in collaboration with the Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale.

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Printed canvas

Chinese Room

This printed textile features a subject that refers both to chinoiserie and to the broader interest in exoticism and in everything originating from distant worlds, which became established in Europe from the end of the 17th century onwards and was destined to endure for a long time. In this case, we are looking at an example of a textile printed in the West: the success of indiennes imported by the East India Companies, merchants, and travellers had in fact encouraged the creation of Western printing workshops. By using mordant printing systems and block printing techniques, a method was developed for creating decorative patterns applied onto the surface of fabrics. This system differed from the weaving of figured designs, allowing production costs to be reduced.

The Chinese Sitting Room of Palazzo Moroni features European-made furnishings and objects, whose forms and decorations nevertheless refer to the Far East. They are an excellent example of chinoiserie. Only one group of works is an exception and is authentically oriental: four small paintings on the walls made of pith paper, a material sold in Europe between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century, obtained from the pith of a shrub widespread in Taiwan and southern China.

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Two-tone damask

Turkish Room

The displayed two-tone damask presents an evolution of designs on Italian-made textiles widespread in the 16th century, later influenced by patterns observed in Oriental carpets. Here, large palmette leaves are enclosed within a network of lattice motifs formed by leafy stems, rendered in a highly simplified manner. In this case, a new element is introduced, represented by tulips, which are incorporated into the stems. The so-called “tulip mania” emerged at the beginning of the 17th century and continued throughout the 18th century, characterising the art of the period, which featured representations of these flowers in all their many varieties.

The decorative tulip motif originates from the Middle East, which also inspired the decorations of this room, known as the Turkish Room. On the walls, exotic animals such as zebras and camels can in fact be seen, alternating with leafy stems and festoons.

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Lancé satin

Blue Room

The fragment, made of lancé satin, bears witness to 19th-century mechanical textile production, which revived the styles of ancient textile types (revival) by translating them through modern production systems. In this case, a design used from the end of the 16th century was reused, though rendered in a simplified manner, and intended, due to its smaller dimensions, for clothing. Larger pattern repeats, on the other hand, were preferred for the broad surfaces of upholstery and furniture coverings.

The blue colour of the textile recalls the colour of the room’s upholstery, known as the “Blue Room”. Even the vegetal decorative motif is in keeping with the broad, repetitive design of the 19th-century silk wall covering.

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Figured cut velvet

Grand Staircase

The Renaissance splendours of gold and silk weaving (in silk threads and gold threads) were revived by Giuseppe Lisio from the very beginnings of his Manufacture, founded in 1906. Lisio produced two design variations of the type displayed here, which he called “Palio”: in 1925, the version with a fluted amphora and a thistle flower (“Palio I”), and in 1927, the version with two types of thistle flowers alternating within the lattice network (“Palio II”). The technique, cut and voided velvet, and the design can be traced back to the tradition of the weaving workshops active in Florence during the 16th and 17th centuries, which was widely used especially for ecclesiastical garments and furnishings. From 1925 onwards, these velvets achieved great success in both secular and religious contexts. They were often used to decorate interiors or to create garments intended for historical reconstructions, commemorations, or liturgical ceremonies.

Originally fullers and dyers of fabrics, the Moroni family became skilled cloth merchants between the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century, they built their fortune in the textile sector also thanks to the cultivation of mulberry trees, essential for silkworm breeding: it is no coincidence that the plant appears in the family coat of arms. Over time, the family has never ceased to proudly affirm its connection with the art of silk, as you have had the opportunity to discover during your visit.

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