WHITE IN THE FEMININE, Exhibition Palazzo Madama - Civic Museum of Ancient Art, Turin

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WHITE IN THE FEMININE

From 26 February to 2 February 2026

Palazzo Madama - Civic Museum of Ancient Art

Piazza Castello, Turin

Open now from 10:00 to 18:00

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On the occasion of the refurbishment of the Fabric Room, on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Palazzo Madama presents an exhibition that tells the close connection, both material and symbolic, that links white, the natural color of silk and linen, to women. Through a selection of fifty textile artifacts kept in the collections of Palazzo Madama, six of which have been restored for this occasion and fourteen exhibited for the first time, the curator Paola Ruffino guides along a centuries-old story that passes through intricate embroideries, intricate laceworks, and reaches the most iconic of white female garments: the wedding dress. Medieval linen embroidery, needle or bobbin lacework, white-on-white embroidery are arts through which female hands have created masterpieces. This subtle and indissoluble bond spans the centuries and sees women in the roles of authors, creators, and custodians of tradition, refined consumers and patrons of fabrics and fashion accessories. The highlight of white fashion is, in France and Europe, the late 18th century. The charm exerted by Greek and Roman statuary inspires clothing that looks to the ancient world. Young women adopt simple chemise dresses, cinched at the waist with a sash; the model of the cingulum of married Roman women, worn high under the breast, initiates a fashion that will last for thirty years. The preferred fabrics are cotton muslins, silk gauzes, lightweight satins, white or minutely patterned, like the porcelain of tea sets. Around this focal point, illustrated by garments, miniatures, fans, and female accessories, the exhibition explores the past and the future. The embroideries of female monasteries, particularly in the German-speaking area and the Lake Constance region, worked in linen on natural linen canvas, where the design, made of simple but widely varied stitches, is outlined only by a colored silk contour, date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. A type of work that, due to the poverty of materials and ease of execution, later spread in secular domestic settings, for the decoration of tablecloths and cushions. In Italy, decorative motifs of typically Mediterranean medieval origin, such as birds, castles, trees of life, outlined in white on 'rensa' fabric, a rare and thin fabric, of which two rare specimens are on display, perhaps Sicilian or Sardinian, persisted on household linens for a long time.

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Santa Maria della Scala, Siena

	opens - closes	last entry
monday	24:00 - 24:00
tuesday	10:00 - 18:00
wednesday	10:00 - 18:00
thursday	13:00 - 21:00
friday	10:00 - 18:00
saturday	10:00 - 18:00
sunday	10:00 - 18:00

WHITE IN THE FEMININE

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