The session on textiles in my South Asian art hist. survey course is probably one of the students' favorites of the semester. That textiles excavated in Cairo can be ID'd as Indian because of the twist of the cotton threads (in addition to dye & formal analysis) is a revelation.
The vast textile fibers in Egypt are spun counter-clockwise (s-twist)--probably a holdover from flax, which prefers to be spun in that direction--whereas cotton is spun clockwise (z-twist) in India. Indian yarns, moreover, are rarely plied.
The short videos produced for the phenomenal 2015-16 @thevanda 'Fabric of India' exhibition are wonderful teaching tools: vam.ac.uk/content/exhibi…
Teaching ikat textiles is always a challenge...
"Wait...the design is resist-dyed into the warp threads before they're even tied onto the loom?!" Yup. (More pics and information here: oaxacaculture.com/2016/12/india-…)
It's illuminating for them to see the range of markets for which Indian textiles were made. W. India has long made textiles for export to the Middle East & SE Asia (like the patola above). SE India also made fabrics for export, including to Japan (NB: the rolling printing block!)
And of course "chintz" (from 'chit'), a painted and glazed fabric that was produced throughout SE India and which was highly desired among European consumers. (The design in the chintz textile here also bears embroidered outlines.)
Of course, ikats and printed, painted, and embroidered textiles were much in demand throughout South Asia, too. One of my favorites is this 17C kalamkari ("pen-work," or painted textile) from Golconda in SE India (today in @metmuseum).
The central panel bears an image of Qutb Shahi elites (also wearing wonderful painted textiles) set in a fantastical architectural setting.
...and in the lower register, a group of Europeans (Dutch?). Why is the woman on the right bearing her breast? Why is she nestling a chicken? And why does the dog bear a chintamani-esque pattern? Is this satire? Unclear, but it's all totally fabulous.
This thread is all to say that textiles are AMAZING and should be included in any curriculum (not just art history). They're technologically fascinating, but also sociologically, historically, and economically important. And students _get_ them because, hey, we all use/wear them.
[Please excuse spelling errors (baring, not bearing) and unintended omissions (vast _majority_ of textile fibers...). Tweeting on the fly!]
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