Dresses and fabrics of Maria Theresa of Austria donated for her wedding return to Ferrara

Returning to Ferrara are some of the dresses and fabrics given to Maria Theresa of Austria in 1736 for her marriage to Francis Stephen of Lorraine. The wedding was celebrated in the Este city itself on February 12 of that year, in the church of Santo Spirito, with a reception in the nearby Cervelli house on Via Montebello.

Acquiring the precious finely embroidered fabrics was Maggiolina Novelli, from Ferrara, a master craftswoman and president of the cultural association “La sfida di Aracne,” for the study, enhancement and promotion of the history of embroidery, or Aemilia Ars, as the specific Emilian style of lace was anciently defined.

Maggiolina Novelli welcomed to her workshop, from a private collection, the sottabito of the reigning Archduchess of Austria, Apostolic Queen of Hungary, as well as a linen altar cloth (for chapel) decorated with sartorial motifs made from Vecellio’s Renaissance designs, and an antique hemp towel, with tulle (transparent net) embroidered with painstaking precision.

“These are museum pieces,” Novelli emphasizes. “The fine quality of the fabrics, the skill of the workmanship, and the uniqueness of the pieces are important elements of our culture, which should be cherished.” And she points out that “it took about three hours of work to make one square centimeter, using threads four times thinner than the minimum size threads on the market today,” so much so that it produced decorations with tiny lily of the valley flowers, ’frame’ motifs with tiny rings adorning the slit, a choker embroidered with flowers and leaves."

The dress probably predates Maria Theresa of Austria herself. Given to her by the city for her wedding, it appears undersized for the archduchess’s build as the paintings depict her and it is therefore possible that it was never worn.

“In addition to historical value, these pieces show work of absolute beauty and precision,” Novelli comments, “with a skill that only women and men can boast, superior even to the capabilities of today’s most advanced machines.”

Pictured is Maggiolina Novelli and the sottabito.

Dresses and fabrics of Maria Theresa of Austria donated for her wedding return to Ferrara

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