Italian frilled veils?

I'm sitting on a train from Washington DC to New York now. I visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington just a few days ago, and spotted a lot of frilled veils in the Italian painting galleries. So, they definatly did exist there, in contradiction to was is commonly believed.

Madonna and Child Enthroned, c. 1420, Gentile da Fabriano, Marchigian, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Saint Ursula with two Angels and Donor, c. 1455/1460, Florentine, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Madonna and Whild with Angels and Cherubim, c. 1460/1465, Matteo di Giovanni, Siennese, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

The Crucifiction with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome and Saint Mary Magdalene, c. 1482/1485, Pietro Perugino, Umbrian, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

These are only four examples of the many I found. Also the Metropolitan Museum has some examples in their collection. I will post some more later.

Embroidery in the exhibition "Splendour and glory of the Middle Ages

A few weeks ago, we were in Koln, Germany, to visit the Exhibition "Splendour and glory of the Middle Ages", in the Schnutgen Museum. And finally, I've got time to show you some of the embroidery highlights.

The embroidery fragment in the museum flyer is a close-up from this 14^th century brick stitch pouch.

This 14^th century pouch is one of my favorites. It's embroidered in gold, with a little dog in 3D, and it's got a mesh cover. This pouch is part of the collection of the Kölnischen Stadtmuseum, where it is usually on display. It is described extensively in the book “Mittelalter in Köln: Eine Auswahl aus den Beständen des Kölnischen Stadtmuseums”.

The images above are from the Bildindex. This site has wonderful pictures, but it's quite difficult to browse. For some reason, I can't link back to the images. I know that you can use the RBA code (see caption in the images) to browse, but I don't know how... If you happen to know some tips & tricks for browsing the Bildindex, please let us know!

And finally, I really liked the “Kölner Borten”: wool and silk tablet woven bands with embroidery. The colorful designs are just lovely! This type of borders were manufactured in Koln between the 13^th and the 16^th century, and were mainly used to adorn ecclesiastical garments.  You can read more about these borders in "Kölner Bortenweberei im Mittelalter. Corpus Kölner Borte" . The borders below are from ca 1450. 

image from Kultur Online