Portret van Prins Maurits, medaillon op witte zijde geborduurd 17th century

This small embroidered portrait of Prince Maurits is made of silk on silk; we don't know when it was made or who made it. The anonymous artist worked with needle and thread, a painstaking process. The piece is tiny, and the stitches are dense and fine. This gives the portrait an almost photographic realism. The choice of silk as a ground, and as the material for the embroidery itself, speaks to the preciousness of the subject. Embroidery has a fascinating history, often associated with the domestic sphere and feminine accomplishment. Yet, as we see here, it could also be deployed for explicitly public, even political purposes. This blurring of boundaries reminds us that the category of 'craft' is not so separate from 'fine art' as we might think. Both depend on skilled labor, and both are deeply embedded in social life.