“Scenes of Rome” Furnishing Fabric
c. 1815
Medium
Cotton; engraved roller printed
Dimensions
268 × 83.2 cm (105 1/2 × 32 3/4 in.)
Classification
textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
256786
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The late 18th and early 19th centuries were an incredibly fertile period for innovation in the European textile industries, especially in the field of direct printing. Decades of experimentation led to the development of a variety of ways to apply color and pattern to cloth, which enabled artists and designers to invent new design vocabularies and quickly respond to cultural trends and ideas. One of the most enduring of these innovations was the ability to print on cloth with copperplates and th...
About the Artist
Unknown
The artist designated as "Unknown" in our virtual museum's collection exemplifies a poignant chapter in art history: creators whose identities have faded into obscurity despite the enduring power of their work. With only one known artwork attributed to them in our holdings, this figure represents countless anonymous hands that shaped visual culture across centuries. Museums worldwide, including th...