The St Martin Embroideries - Free Download Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art

Now out of print, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has generously made this book written by Margaret B Freeman, Curator Emeritus of the Cloisters, available for free download. The Cloisters owns 2 of the 11 US St Martin embroideries. These Franco-Flemish and Flemish pictorial embroideries of the first half of the fifteenth century are rare today. St. Martin, bishop of Tours, is remembered also for his power over nature and his restoration of the dead to life. In this most readable treatise each subject is integrated in the storytelling scheme, the styles of the several artists who made the designs are differentiated, the particular embroidery techniques are discussed, the name of the Burgundian nobleman who may have commissioned the set is sifted out of the historical and artistic evidence, and what is known of the embroideries' recent history is reported. The discussion is such that it greatly enlarges one's own knowledge not only of Medieval French, Franco-Flemish, and Flemish embroidery but of painting and manuscript illumination in these regions. To download this book, click here. (It is about 4.4MB)