Assisi Embroidery from Italy

Embroidery Articles - Assisi Embroidery from Italy

Beth Gardner active in Santa Clara Valley and Gavilan Hills chapters, wrote a series of columns on embroidery for her chapter newsletters. The 2002 series highlighted embroidery done with a sharp needle; 2003 features a world tour of ethnic embroidery. She has graciously made the columns available for all Region members to enjoy. All articles are copyrighted by Beth and used by permission. Contact for questions or reprint permission.

The Traveling Thread
© 2003

This year I’ll be researching embroidery techniques from around the world. Each column will feature a different country and technique native to that country.

This month we travel to Italy to try our hand at Assisi work. Assisi is also known as silhouette embroidery, counterchange embroidery or voided embroidery because the motifs themselves are outlined and void of stitching; the area outside the motifs is filled with counted work. Today’s Assisi work is generally done with counted cross stitch but early examples found in the Victoria and Albert Museum show the counted work done with long arm cross, Italian cross, satin stitch and even a four-sided pulled stitch. Historically, the counted work was done in dark red and sometimes dark green or dark blue. Early work was not usually outlined, as we see it today, nor was the filigree work surrounding it that we do today in Holbein stitch present.

History

Legend has it that Assisi work originated in Assisi, Italy after St. Francis was canonized in 1228. A nun at the Franciscan convent copied in simple line drawings typical of this time period, some of the motifs in the church murals that depicted St. Francis’ life. The nuns copied the motifs onto linen and filled in the area outside the motifs with counted work. Early Assisi work was strictly ecclesiastical and stitched as alter cloths by nuns and was characterized by stylized animals and birds, and sometimes flowers, presumably because St. Francis is the patron saint of animals and ecology. By the 17th century, countries that had a strong tradition of counted work were incorporating Assisi-style work into their native styled embroideries. As with much historical embroidery, Assisi fell out of favor in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the early 20th century, women of Assisi revived the art of the 13th century embroidery and so it is referred to as Assisi embroidery today.

Modern Assisi work is decorated with a Blackwork filigree stitch around the edge of the counted work, called Holbein stitch. The stitch is so named because the 16th century painter, Hans Holbein, painted many detailed portraits of King Henry the VIII’s court with very detailed double running stitch decorations on their shirt collars, cuffs and linens.

Assisi Technique

Assisi may be worked by either completing the motif outlines first and then filling in all the counted work or by completing the counted work first. I prefer to do my outlines last to smooth out the edges of the cross stitches. The interior outlines are usually done with a back stitch, rather than a double running stitch. The counted work is usually cross stitch, but it would be nice to see some examples done with the other counted stitches mentioned above. The filigree stitch is usually done last and is done as a reversible Holbein stitch. Traditionalists can stitch with the early dark colors but today anything goes with Assisi work and it is lovely in overdyed thread if you complete each cross as you come to it.

Resources

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