The Serrano Embroidery

The popular embroidery of the Sierra de Francia region in Salamanca (Spain) is a unique cultural manifestation, whose traditional ways of decorating cloth embody a set of time-tested knowledge and techniques, intangible and symbolic elements that transcend the mere materiality of popular embroidery.

An expression of the creativity and identity of the local community, it is handed down from mothers to daughters and/or from recognised embroiderers, who build their own artistic universe, creating bonds between women of different age groups and social classes. Serrano Embroidery is characterised by its colour and expressiveness, where animals, real or mythological, are intertwined in variegated vegetal arabesque patterns.

The oral transmission, the identity of the community members, the actions that are represented, the leading role of the community, the diversity of symbols and meanings, the survival throughout history and the current vitality, all make the popular embroidery of the Sierra de Francia a cultural manifestation of high heritage value and justify its declaration as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).

This type of popular embroidery is considered one of the most genuine manifestations of the intangible culture of the cultural territory of the Sierra de Francia, as it brings together a set of common technical, plastic and symbolic features that provide a way of recognising the identity of its people, as a result of a cultural syncretism in which different peoples and cultures have converged since the distant past up to the present.

Serrano Embroidery is a popular form of embroidering cloth, a unique cultural manifestation that brings together a set of common technical, plastic and symbolic features that create an artistic universe of its own. This artistry is created by the hands of craftswomen and characterised by its colour and expressiveness where animals, real or mythological, are intertwined in variegated vegetal arabesque patterns.

Serrano Embroidery faithfully represents the evolution of the settlement and the idiosyncrasy of these lands, and its iconography reflects influences from ancient Oriental civilizations, as well as from Renaissance and Moorish styles. This is evidenced by the collar that depicts animals, vegetal arabesque patterns and the horror vacui.

The motifs traditionally used in embroidery are recognised by the inhabitants of the Sierra de Francia region as symbols of their “Serrano” identity.

The “fear of empty spaces”, an artistic concept that defines this embroidery technique results in the entire piece of fabric being profusely filled with Greek keys, decorative borders and central motifs, in vegetal arabesque patterns in which a series of stylised animals are inserted among tangled branches.

The absence of the human figure and geometric motifs, the axis of symmetry of their compositions and their technical procedures of satin and counted-thread stitches are the basic characteristics that define and distinguish Serrano Embroidery.

As a living cultural element, Serrano Embroidery has continued its natural evolution, especially since the 19th century and the second half of the 20th century, with the incorporation of new materials, chemical dyes and techniques. Gradually abandoning the characteristic horror vacui of the older compositions, the more contemporary designs are lighter and more delicate, all without losing the unity in its elaboration and its own characteristics in terms of technique, motifs, composition and colour.

Popular Serrano Embroidery is currently based on the towns of La Alberca and Mogarraz, where there are two schools of embroidery with different characteristics. The rest of the towns in the Sierra de Francia belong to either one school or the other:

The School of La Alberca characterised by less clashing compositions, with less horror vacui in which salmon colours predominate.

In the School of Mogarraz the polychromy of traditional colours lives on and the salmon tone was added due to the influence of the School of La Alberca. This distinct evolution of each school helps us to know with some accuracy if an embroidery comes from one school or another.

FABRICS AND MATERIALS

In the Sierra de Francia, flax farming was one of the backbones of the family economies and its sale and export was closely connected with the growth and fame of mule drivers from that region.

Linen and wool were the basic materials used to obtain the fabric. Between the 11th and 17th centuries, the embroidery from the Sierra de Francia was sewn on linen canvas (taffeta fabric made of linen) using different techniques such as the “outline stitch”, the “counted-thread stitch” and the “satin stitch”. More than 30 types of stitches have been developed, depending on the length of the stitch, its inclination and the connection between the stitches.

Until the 17th century wool yarn and worsted yarn were used though they were later replaced by silk yarn. Moline cotton embroidery thread, which has appeared more recently, and silk thread are the most commonly used materials today.

The main different fabrics used for Serrano Embroidery were created in a traditional horizontal loom called a low warp loom. Until the 19th century, looms were manually operated and there were around 40 looms in La Alberca and as many others located in the rest of the villages in the region. At the beginning of 20th century, the last manual looms disappeared and industrial fabric made with other fibres began to be used.

TECHNIQUE

Popular embroidery from the Sierra de Francia uses a mixed technique in which two different procedures are used for the same model and for each one of the motifs: The “counted-thread stitch” and the “outline stitch”.

The embroidery begins with the drawing of the motif on the fabric with a black thread that marks the outlines. Subsequently, the motif is filled in with a wide variety of stitches, using the satin embroidery technique, where the thread travels along the front and back of the fabric, and with counted threads technique, using different stitches with popular names such as ”loin stitch”, ”half-yolk stitch’, ”full-eyed stitch”, ”fishbone stitch’, ”brick stitch”, ”las torrinas stitch” and ”chair sit stitch’’, accounting for as many as 34 different types.

COLOURS

The traditional colours are red, green, yellow and blue, combined in pairs. The most common combinations being yellow-blue, red-green, and blue and black.

In the older embroideries that are part of museum collections, polychromes are very rare. Black, which was used to outline the motifs, is the colour used to embroider large compositions of floral and zoomorphic elements and the sleeves of embroidered blouses, especially those made for women.

From the middle of the 20th century, polychromy became prevalent and new colours were incorporated: mauve, purple, grass green, cobalt blue, golden yellow, fire red and salmon.

EMBROIDERY MOTIFS

The main characters in the iconographic universe of Serrano Embroidery are animal and plant motifs. The sacred lotus flower, the papyrus flower, the Assyrian rose, the palm and the tulip, the open or closed pomegranate, make up the Greek key design that unites and intertwines with an animal universe composed of lions, deer, fish, pigeons, birds, two-headed eagles and dragons. One of the most frequently represented animal motifs is the bird, which in its different versions is popularly interpreted as a reflection of the different moods and emotions of the women embroiderers. Representations of mythological animals such as gryphons and dragons are also very common and, less commonly, the cockerel, the butterfly, the wild boar, the owl and the dog appear.

As a unique case, unicorns appear on a 16th century quilt in the Pedagogical Textile Collection of the Complutense University of Madrid.

The “tree of life” is an iconographic motif frequently used in ancient civilisations which is represented as emerging from a double-handled vase in popular Serrano Embroidery.

Another peculiar motif is the personalized “encomienda”, a round element composed by floral and geometric motifs, an expression of the master embroiderers’ great compositional skills in designing unique motifs for each embroidered cloth.

Nowadays, even though these motif’s symbolic meanings have been greatly lost, their iconography has become a regional identity hallmark of Serrano people, and these motifs are used in other fields of the social, cultural and economic area’s life.

COMPOSITION

The master embroiderers took charge of the piece’s composition which would later be executed by the remaining embroiderers. The masters are the principal custodians of this Intangible Cultural Heritage’s manifestation. Therefore, they play an essential role in the transfer of knowledge and practices of this art, which, traditionally, took place within the family home.

Symmetry characterises the compositions. The large cloths present an arranged composition in squares, where motifs are added. The most important motifs are always in the centre; in the smaller pieces, ornamentation is included around the edges. These compositions are distinguished by the horror vacui, an oriental artistic trend which in Serrano Embroidery becomes more notable because of the motifs’ large size. Sometimes, the pieces have unravelled bands that lighten the compositional heaviness, or the called Salamanca’s suns, which are usually placed at the ends. The piece is also often finished with lace or tassels.

The tradition is passed on mainly through training courses and safeguarding workshops run by associations such as the Artisan Women´s Association of the Sierra de Francia and nowadays by the Red Arrayán Association of Culture, Heritage and Environment in collaboration with public institutions such as city councils, the commonwealth of the Sierra de Francia, the Directorate-General for Heritage of the Regional Government of Castile and León, the Ministry de Culture and the Provincial Council of Salamanca.

Today, these embroidered cloths have in many cases lost their original function though they continue to be a means of transmitting a deeply rooted cultural tradition. Until the second half of the 20th century, embroidery, a faithful reflection of the social and economic hierarchy of the family, was destined for important events in social life and was related to three fundamental moments in family life: marriage, festivities and funeral rites. Popular Serrano Embroidery was mainly used to decorate the domestic trousseau.

Curiously the popular embroidery of the Sierra de Francia, even in the case of ritual cloths or tablecloths for altars, never uses Christian motives in its compositions, and if they appear they are made by using the unravelling technique.

Nowadays, the use of embroidery has been maintained in feasts and patron saint festivities, such as the Feast of Corpus Christi in La Alberca and the Feast of Corpus Christi and Feast of Our Lady of the Snows in Mogarraz, which have become unique spectacles for the contemplating Serrano Embroidery, decorating or “polishing” balconies and windows.

USES AND COLLECTIONS

Having lost their original use and functionality, the embroidered cloths are considered works of art in themselves that must be taken care of and protected. The most valuable pieces remain conveniently stored away in chests all year, and they are brought out to shine on the most important day, the Feast of the Corpus Christi, when the whole square is “adorned”.

We also find some of the most representative and ancient works of this embroidery catalogued in different collections and museums, such as in the Ethnographic Museum of Castile and León (in Zamora), in the Valencia Institute of Don Juan (in Madrid), in the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid and in the Textile Pedagogical Collection of the Complutense University of Madrid. Eleven characteristic pieces of this Popular Serrano Embroidery are now also preserved in the collections of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

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