Monitoring of damage to historic tapestries (MODHT): a newly initiated EU project

TL;DRAbstract

The trade in dyestuffs has played an important role in the economic history of many nations. In medieval Europe this is demonstrated by the important place held by woad in the economy of many countries, but while the woad industry of Toulouse or Erfurt is quite well known, that of Catalonia and Roussillon is rather less familiar. Other aspects of medieval woad dyeing are equally interesting: it is known that the vat contains indigo-reducing bacteria, but how do these bacteria interact with the indigo to make the process work? In fact, identifying the dye present in fragments of aged or degraded textile or in a tiny pigment sample is only half the battle: we are still left wondering how the effects revealed by the analysis were achieved. Thus, madder was widely used in Roman and Coptic Egypt, but which madder? How do the red pigments used to paint the sumptuous glazes on 15th- or 16th-century European paintings relate to the textiles dyed with the same dyes?
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