Amanda Pullan

University of Toronto, Dean's Office (UTM), Department Member

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Ph.D. (2015) History, Lancaster University

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Early Modern History +11

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‘Informed Seeing’: Reading the Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Cabinet at Milton Manor House through its Historical and Social Contexts

Textile History, 2016

This object lesson examines a seventeenth-century cabinet, held at Milton Manor House in Oxfordsh... more This object lesson examines a seventeenth-century cabinet, held at Milton Manor House in Oxfordshire, which has been embroidered with biblical scenes. Starting from the premise that knowledge informs seeing, this article provides a close reading of the cabinet’s iconography and historical context in order to highlight the knowledge — both the general ideologies and the individual interpretation — that may have informed its production. Through a detailed reading, the maker’s negotiation of the virtue of submissiveness, a major tenet of women’s education in the period, is identified as a possible theme.

Needlework and Moral Instruction in English Seventeenth-Century Households: the Case of Rebecca

Studies in Church History, 2014

In the seventeenth-century household, in which biblically themed decor was fashionable, many need... more In the seventeenth-century household, in which biblically themed decor was fashionable, many needlework projects included images of female biblical characters. Rebecca was among the most frequently embroidered. In both Protestant and Catholic traditions, Rebecca’s story, recorded in Genesis 24, was perceived as especially pertinent to the household. Depictions of her story appeared in the sixteenth-century picture Bibles which were dedicated to, and circulated among, Protestant and Catholic audiences in parts of western and central Europe. Rebecca also featured in Erhard Schön’s didactic illustrated woodcut,Zwölf Frawen des Alten Testaments(c.1530). Not all biblical stories involving female figures were included in these illustrated works, so the inclusion of her story suggests that Rebecca was perceived as a proper model for young women. Moreover, the absence of Rebecca from the large-scale tapestries which throughout the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries commonly depicted biblical...

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Female Contemplation of Marital and Spiritual Love and the Embroidered Image in Early Modern Britain

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Reading lay notions of salvation from embroidered depictions of Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness, c. 1640-60

The household has been an important focus for measuring the reception of religious teachings. In ... more The household has been an important focus for measuring the reception of religious teachings. In Post-Reformation Britain, new theologies including the covenant of salvation and predestination are known to have impacted the religious activities of the household. Yet, the extent to which individuals expressed an understanding of these theologies is less well known. With increasing literacy and the dissemination of print, we know that households were exposed to new ideas, and yet we are often limited in our knowledge of how individuals translated and applied theology to daily life. This paper will present findings from a study on seventeenth-century domestic needlework, part of the material and visual culture of the household. It will show how individual women represented ideas about salvation through Biblical narratives wrought in embroidery. Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness, one story from the larger Abrahamic narrative, is the main example to be discussed. Drawing on illustrated woodcuts, paintings and women's needlework projects, I will argue that individual women personally responded to the contemporary debates on salvation. They did this through a medium that required translation of ideas into pictorial symbols and often gestures. This study of lay perspectives on salvation reminds us that it was something that individuals earnestly deliberated. In this way, the paper speaks to the conference's bigger theme of translating the message of Christianity, and illustrates how young adolescent women living in Stuart Britain were part of this long-enduring process.

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