Piece 1780 - 1790

Curator: Philippe de Lasalle’s silk panel, simply titled “Piece,” made between 1780 and 1790, is really an exceptional example of the late Baroque era's obsession with ornament and detail. Editor: The piece is striking; the monochrome palette creates a really rich surface. You're immediately drawn into this intricate web of botanical and figurative motifs, almost like getting lost in an elaborate garden. Curator: Exactly, and it’s key to see this as more than just decoration. Lasalle, as a designer for the Lyon silk industry, played a role in shaping elite visual culture. The elaborate designs functioned as signifiers of status and taste for the aristocracy. Editor: Yes, and thinking about the labor involved—the weavers in Lyon, for example. The level of craftsmanship here speaks to the expertise and, likely, exploitation embedded in textile production. We're talking about materials, techniques, workshops…these are all forms of physical, skilled labor. Curator: Precisely! Think about the symbolism interwoven too. The birds, the flowers – they aren’t merely decorative; they speak to societal ideals about nature, beauty, and perhaps even empire given that these designs were circulated globally through trade. Who benefits, whose story are told and valued when these things are traded? Editor: It prompts a discussion about what it means to create value—literally and metaphorically. Who dictates the aesthetics and controls production of these commodities and why? It raises the complex dynamics between production, desire, class and consumption. Curator: Thinking through these layers helps us challenge this tendency of Western Art History, this separation of decorative arts from high art. Why has something like this woven panel historically been regarded as somehow ‘lesser’ than a painting? It encourages new ways of looking at gendered labor, how hierarchies of skill were produced within these fields. Editor: This is a piece I feel like you could keep returning to it and noticing new details, each time thinking differently about it—how design and materiality and power intersect. Curator: Exactly, and questioning the values embedded within systems, seeing art like this panel as an active participant shaping broader narratives.