Have you heard of ‘knitting madonnas’? Until a few days ago, neither had I! I was aware of a medieval painting of Mary, mother of Jesus, knitting a jumper in the round on four needles, which many modern knitters would consider advanced, but not that this was only one of several medieval paintings that depict Mary knitting.
To my delight I learned the other day that there is a knitting madonna that shows Mary holding an unfinished piece of stranded colourwork! It is clearly a cuff either for a sleeve, glove or stocking.
All the knitting madonnas show Mary knitting in the round, which is unsurprising as in the medieval period all garments were knitted in the round. As far as I can tell knitting garments in pieces to be sewn together was a Victorian development.
My favourite medieval religious art depicting knitting shows not Mary herself knitting, but it is one of the female saints sitting near her who is knitting what appears to be a child’s sock, maybe for the infant Jesus. An early depiction of Christmas sock knitting? Though it wasn’t an English painting, this Spanish work is particularly relevant to the history of knitting in England, where during the Tudor period stocking knitting became at major industry, lasting for many hundred of years in the rural dales.
Fabulous
Amazing!
This is beautiful! We are starting a knitting group in our parish (making fidget muffs for patients with dementia) and I will pass this information on to them. They will love this! Many thanks.
I love this and I sent it to my grandmother, who’s greatly interested in icons and who taught me to knit but herself never learned to work in the round. She’s fascinated!