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Needlework and Moral Instruction in English Seventeenth-Century Households: the Case of Rebecca
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2016
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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 scenes provides an important contrast to the popularity of her story in smaller-scale domestic needlework projects.
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References
1 Ruth Geuter has catalogued 770 embroideries from multiple museum collections, which include depictions of 395 biblical stories; she has identified Rebecca as one of the more common subjects, with 31 pieces: Geuter, V. R., ‘Women and Embroidery in Seventeenth-Century Britain: The Social, Religious, and Political Meanings of Domestic Needlework’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, 1996), 285 Google Scholar. I have found an additional nine pieces with Rebecca, bringing the total to 40.
2 Gen. 24: 1-66 tells how Rebecca was chosen to be Isaac’s wife. Isaac’s father Abraham sent his servant, unnamed here but known as Eliezer (cf. Gen. 15: 2), to find a wife for Isaac among his relatives. Eliezer asked God for a sign to help him make the selection. He then approached Rebecca at the well, and asked for water. She offered to draw water for his camels in addition, fulfilling the sign. Eliezer explained to Rebecca and her family God’s providence in the event, and Rebecca returned with Eliezer to Canaan to be Isaac’s wife.
3 Two of the most eminent sixteenth-century volumes of biblical illustrations were de Jode, Gerard, Thesaurus Sacrarum Historiarum Veteris Testamenti (Antwerp, 1585)Google Scholar; and Tourne’s, Jean de, Quadrins Historiques de la Bible (Lyons, 1553)Google Scholar. The first edition of de Tournes Quadrins was dedicated to the ‘Trereverente Dame, Janne de la Rochefocaud, Abbess de Nostre dame de Xaintes’, which suggests an audience which was both female and Catholic. In addition to German and Italian editions, Quadrins was also translated into English by Peter Derendel and published in England as The true and lovely historike portreatures of the Holy Bible (1553): Cartier, Alfred, ed., Bibliographie des éditions des de Tournes, imprimeurs lyonnais: Mise en ordre avec une introduction et des appendices par Marius Audin et une notice biographique par E. Vial, 2 vols (Paris, 1937), 1: 348.Google Scholar
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6 Using my updated version of Geuter’s inventory, 1 have identified Rebecca’s story on 24 embroidered objects (some objects depict more than one story, each of which I have counted separately according to Geuter’s method), from eleven different collections.
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9 Pieces which portray only this scene, Isaac meeting Rebecca, begin to appear in the eighteenth century: see London, Victoria and Albert Museum Collections, T.45-1937; T. 122-1930.
10 De Jode’s Thesaurus Sacrarum includes an image of Jacob receiving the blessing from his father with Rebecca in the background holding the water jug.
11 Pollock, Linda, ‘“Teach Her to Live under Obedience”: The Making of Women in the Upper Ranks of Early Modern England’, Continuity and Change 4 (1989), 231–58 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 237.
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14 Gen. 24: 18-20 (AV).
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25 The best example is Port Sunlight, Lady Lever Art Gallery, LL5258, which has the mermaid motif on the lid of the embroidered box containing images of Rebecca: Brooke, Xanthe, The Lady Lever Art Gallery Catalogue of Embroideries (Stroud, 1992), 183.Google Scholar
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27 The embroidered cabinet (LANMS.2005.4) is currently at the Museum of Lancashire, Preston. Through correspondence with the museum, the Netherhampton Salerooms and Mrs Rachel Kent (née Bourne), provenance details have been established, although lack of historical records has so far made it impossible to identify or date Eunice Bourne with certainty.
28 From my analysis of 150 seventeenth-century embroideries, this is the only example in which a scene from the life of Christ has been integrated within the story of Rebecca.
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30 See, in this volume, Walsham, Alexandra, ‘Holy Families: The Spiritualization of the Early Modern Household Revisited’, 122–60.Google Scholar
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32 Ibid.
33 Markham, Gervase, The English Housewife, ed. Best, Michael R. (Montreal, QC, 1986), 7–8.Google Scholar
34 Cleaver, Robert and Dod, John, A godly forme of houshold government for the ordering of priuate families, according to the direction of God’s word (London, 1621)Google Scholar, sig. M2.
35 Gouge, , Exposition, 21.Google Scholar
36 Frye, Susan, Pens and Needles: Women’s Textualities in Early Modern England (Philadelphia, PA, 2010), 172.Google Scholar
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38 Burke, Bernard, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols (London, 1871), 1: 130.Google Scholar
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