THE STUDY OF A RELIGIOUS DECORATIVE TEXTILE BELONGING TO VANK CHURCH IN ISFAHAN

Abstract

The Persian craft of textile making is one of the ancient arts and crafts with traditions originating more than two millennia ago. The golden age for textiles begins with the Safavid Era. In this paper, investigation and study of a Persian sacrament sample was carried out with due regard to the importance of its religious meaning. One aim of selecting this object for practical and theoretical research was based on a consideration of the ancient minority religion people of Iran. This four-piece object of velvet needlework (48.5 × 45 cm) comes from the eighteenth century ad with a kind of special sewing termed 'Djulffaic sewing' with a silver stripe braiding tinsel and 'sermee' (a type of tinsel with a cylindrical form), tapestry, sequin ornamentation and 'zaghareeh dozy' (ornamentation with braiding and sequins). It is made with very fine needlework using silver and gold thread. This ornamented textile with a symbolic design was made to hang in sacred ceremonies over the bishop's staff. It is made of four separate panels joined together. In order to choose the best course of restoration, the investigation was carried out taking account of the importance of technique and method of manufacture, diagnosis of deterioration and its causes. After study and analysis in the laboratory, conservation and restoration was performed. Operations included cleaning, bleed tests in order to select the best way to wash the textile, supporting and mending the object with different techniques such as sticky thread, couching and so on.