Historical perfume at the Documentation Center and Textile Museum of Terrassa
Meet live… the smell against the black death
Within the framework of the exhibition “Art perfum, the perfum as a tool of art”, the event “Meet live…” to Textile Museum and Documentation Centre Terrassa. A unique opportunity to be part , for a few hours of the museum team , in front of extraordinaries pieces , in this case some embroidery monastic.
Smells made or not, have been part of any historical moment, variant with the label that defined: medicine, witchcraft, perfumery...
This workshop will deal specifically, smells characters shields that Europeans used before the great plague that fell so drastically and tools and dissemination methods.
Meet live… the smell against the black death
A monastic embroidery; an archaeological pieces ... we put on the track of the fact that during the fourteenth century ravaged Europe: Plague, also known as "the Black Death".
In a very sensory experience, know how people of different social classes tried to protect against this scourge.
By : Textile Museum and Documentation Centre of Hope and Homes, artisan perfumer.
The workshop was a very complete experience, for my part I was impressed with the care, the knowledge and passion transmitted by the people of CDMT Terrassa, especially its director Eulàlia Morral who with her deep knowledge captivated all the attendees.
It began in the library in front of the piece presumably by Maria de Padilla, lover of Pedro I of Castile that died of the plague shortly after being officially recognized as the wife of the king with whom already had five children.
Following this information was shown how to take a look at other related pieces through imatex, a museum computer medium.
Then we dressed in robes, we put on the gloves they offered us and accepted a thread counter to continue the visit, but now as if we were part of the museum team.
In the reserve we were able to see the little-known work of the museums, one that allows the dignity of the pieces on display, safeguarded by men and women doing shadow work, with fewer resources than would be needed to secure these views of history. For my part, I was surprised by the silk loop and the shameless sense of recycling that made them put together pieces without looking.
Of the civilian population, we moved into the church environment with its main resins, before the vision of a spectacular Botafumeiro that the Museum projected on a stained glass window.
Finally we prepared the formula of the “Vinegar of the four thieves“, as discovered by Mr.. Maille before marketing it as a remedy for almost all ailments.
The images of the activity have been provided by the Documentation Center and Textile Museum of Terrassa, to whom I am very grateful.