2020 Essays

Damasked Cloth

Yi, Yuan

An unusual recipe on fol. 15r involves resist-dye techniques to create a pattern on cloth that imitates damask textile. This essay reconstructs the dyes, and follows the entry’s instructions to reconstruct the process of resist-dyeing. It concludes by situating this process within other entries in Ms. Fr. 640 that aim to produce imitations of more expensive materials and to create the impermanent artworks and decorations of ephemeral court and civic festivals.