- 2 days ago
- #tracesofchina
- #silk
- #venice
Who would believe that 500 years ago in Europe, the price of just three or four silk garments could buy an entire palace?
CGTN Europe unveils Traces of China II. Episode one, Silk, takes you into Venice’s historic silk family for the “soft gold” of 500 years ago; into Europe’s largest silkworm laboratory to uncover the secrets of silk-making; and into Iuav University of Venice to see how young designers weave the spirit of the water city into contemporary gowns.
From Marco Polo’s travels to today’s Made in Italy returning eastward, the story of silk is a two-way journey spanning a thousand years. #TracesofChina #silk #venice
CGTN Europe unveils Traces of China II. Episode one, Silk, takes you into Venice’s historic silk family for the “soft gold” of 500 years ago; into Europe’s largest silkworm laboratory to uncover the secrets of silk-making; and into Iuav University of Venice to see how young designers weave the spirit of the water city into contemporary gowns.
From Marco Polo’s travels to today’s Made in Italy returning eastward, the story of silk is a two-way journey spanning a thousand years. #TracesofChina #silk #venice
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TravelTranscript
00:00Venice, an architectural wonder sitting on a series of islands in the Adriatic.
00:17Venice was perfectly positioned to serve as a gateway between the East and the West.
00:22Over millennia, the exchange of goods and ideas that flowed along the Silk Road,
00:27connecting China to Europe, has made it synonymous with luxury, art, and of course, silk.
00:38When we talk about silk, we talk about the most noble of all fibers.
00:46It is its strength, its beauty, the way it reflects the light.
00:51No other fiber can do the same.
00:55Rubelli is a prestigious luxury silk manufacturer, with showrooms in major cities across the world.
01:02The company remains family-run, with its roots and home here in the heart of Venice.
01:10Welcome to Capizani Rubelli, the home of Rubelli and the Rubelli Foundation.
01:16There to welcome us, actually, there is my great-great-grandfather.
01:20He acquired a company which had existed for at least a couple of hundred years before,
01:25which continued what had been the glorious art of silk and weaving in Venice.
01:31So here, what used to be his home, we gathered a lot of pieces which had been collected mostly by my father,
01:42which witnessed the skill of silk weaving, and in particular, what has been woven in Venice.
01:49It's not only Venice inherited the art of silk from China, but also Venice was inspired by the East.
01:57So is this where the story of silk really begins?
02:00This is indeed one of the highlights of the collection.
02:02It is over five hundred years old, you see how well preserved,
02:06and really tells what you could do with silk.
02:09To me, it's a piece of art.
02:14Carrying on a very long tradition of silk merchants in Venice,
02:18the Rubelli Foundation collection is home to some of the world's most expensive silks.
02:26When you talk about silk in the 14, 15, 16 hundreds,
02:30you're not talking about textile, you're talking about jewels.
02:33They were passed from one generation to another as the most precious belongings.
02:37You have to think that with the value of three or four garments, you could buy a palace.
02:41Venice is said to be the most western of the eastern city because it's beauty.
02:54It really takes origin from the art and aesthetics from the East.
02:59Tell me about this. This is extraordinary.
03:01This is quite an intriguing piece because it was embroidered,
03:06telling the story of a garden to be cut and attached to a dress,
03:11and it has never been cut.
03:13How would people have understood all the Chinese imagery?
03:18I think they just were enchanted by them.
03:21I'm not really sure that they understood what they meant,
03:24but they love this exotic.
03:27We always love what comes from far away.
03:31Silk began its life in China approximately 5,000 years ago.
03:37The exact circumstances of its discovery is now a story of ancient Chinese legend.
03:45Well, we know that the Chinese were the first to understand
03:48how a cocoon could be unrolled and create a beautiful piece of fabric,
03:52which is called silk.
03:55The fabric then took around 3,000 years of refinement
03:58before finding its way to European shores.
04:01Silk first arrived in Italy at the time of the Roman Empire.
04:06We can imagine how they liked it before it was wool, linen, matte.
04:11You could have something shiny.
04:13You moved it around and it looked like you were a whole jewel.
04:15I think that was really a sign of power.
04:19Fragments of these early textiles survive to this day
04:27and can be found deep in the archives of the Palazzo Mocenigo Museum.
04:31This is a great, precious collection.
04:36Wow.
04:37I organized some pieces to demonstrate the evolution we have in 700 after Christ.
04:47It's all silk and decorative elements.
04:51Where did this piece of silk come from?
04:53It come from China.
04:55Because it's a fragment that come here.
04:58We don't know why, but the study of the textile, meaning that it is a China textile.
05:06So how did it get here?
05:07Would it have been traded along the Silk Road?
05:10Yes, it could be.
05:13These early examples demonstrate that silk weaving was not merely a craft,
05:17but an art form and creative medium where skilled weavers express their creativity
05:22through intricate designs.
05:24What are the oldest samples that you have here?
05:27This one.
05:28This one.
05:29This one.
05:30Found in the tomb.
05:31And it's very important for the symbol.
05:34It's the unique demonstration of decorative art.
05:38Do we know exactly how old this is?
05:40Yes, four, five hundred years before the born of Christ.
05:47The exact origins of this ancient piece remain a mystery,
05:52but its age demonstrates how early the Chinese art of silk weaving
05:57was being embraced by cultures far and wide.
06:00Why is it important for us to keep all of these historical bits of fabric?
06:05It's important because it demonstrated that the textile is the first step of communication.
06:12Such communications would manifest in patterns and motifs,
06:17transmitting cultural messages and spiritual ideas.
06:21In reality it is the tree of life.
06:24Because from this vase is born the life.
06:29And this is the meaning.
06:30And you've got the phoenix rebirth.
06:31Yes, yes, yes, yes.
06:32Beautiful.
06:33So the fabric is sort of like messages sent back and forward down the Silk Road?
06:38Yes, absolutely.
06:39Because the textile is the paper of communication.
06:42And the same happened in other parts of the world.
06:48The Silk Road is an ancient trade route linking China with the West
06:52that carried goods and ideas between the great civilizations of China and Europe.
06:57Its history spans the last two and a half thousand years.
07:03Silk, spices, tea, porcelain, but also traditions and technologies flowed along the route.
07:11Exchanges that influenced art, literature and science,
07:15weaving together the cultural tapestry of our modern world.
07:20Venice was a city built to protect the inhabitants from the barbarians
07:24at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire.
07:27And it could have remained a village of fishermen.
07:30There's not much else to do around here.
07:32Instead, Venetians were smart enough to keep the contact with the Roman Empire of the East
07:37and become merchants.
07:43But it wasn't until the 12th century that the most famous Venetian merchant on the Silk Road,
07:48Marco Polo, picked up the threat.
07:52Laura, this is so beautiful. Tell me about where we are right now.
07:57Palazzo Ducale is the temple of the Venetian Republic.
08:03In this palace were based all the activities to govern Venice.
08:10And Marco Polo was one of them.
08:13Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant and diplomat and a writer.
08:18He went to China as a young man and stayed in China more or less 20 years.
08:28What is so important is that Marco Polo came back and wrote about this experience
08:36and making us knowing these people, this tradition, these cities.
08:46In his book, Il Milione, Marco Polo wrote about the Chinese city of Suzhou.
08:51This writing is about Suzhou. In Suzhou, they have a big quantity of silk.
09:00And all people are working or living in the production and trade of silk.
09:07Remarkably, Suzhou had many similarities to Venice, a merchant city connected by canals.
09:21It not only had a thriving silk producing industry, but silk weavers there had also developed techniques far surpassing what could be done in Europe.
09:32Like Sue embroidery, where a single mirrored image or even different images could be viewed from both sides.
09:39A lot of merchants from Venice, from Genova went so long way to China.
09:49The only one who wrote was Marco Polo.
09:55Marco Polo returned from China in 1295 and his tales are credited with boosting the fascination for luxury goods from the East.
10:03During this time period, Venice became a thriving centre of trade, with wealth pouring in from the exchange of exotic goods.
10:12Palaces were bought and sold.
10:16Meanwhile, the Chinese tradition of silk farming was already becoming a well-established industry across the north of Italy.
10:23Silk is exactly grown as it was done 2,000 more years ago.
10:28Because it comes from the silk cocoon, you have to feed the silkworm with leaves from the mulberry trees and take care of them and let them grow until the silkworm builds its cocoons around.
10:42And at that time you can extract this long, magnificent yarn of silk.
10:46Just outside of Venice, Cria is Europe's largest facility for silkworm research, where Silvia Capellosa and her team are exploring a range of non-traditional silk applications, from cosmetics to pharmaceuticals.
11:05Wow, they're so big!
11:06Yeah, because they are at the very end of the larval cycle and now they are ready to spin cocoons.
11:20In fact, you can see that in the cocoon there is a larva inside spinning.
11:27So these are all the little silk cocoons here?
11:30Yeah, yeah, yeah. They will continue till the cocoon is very thick.
11:39Cereculture, the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk, was a closely guarded Chinese secret for thousands of years.
11:46But from the 6th century, silkworms, and their main food source, the white mulberry tree, were moved along the silk roads to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
11:59While historians don't entirely agree on when the Byzantines introduced the white mulberry to Italy, it could have been as early as the 9th century.
12:07And by the 12th century, towns like Lucca, Florence, and Venice began to build a reputation for producing homegrown fine Italian silk.
12:20This is the typical ancient way how they have the spinning of the worms and the silkworms made their cocoons between the branches.
12:30Did the Italian way of farming the silkworms take inspiration from the Chinese way or did they evolve independently?
12:37No, they evolved independently because, you know, at that time, farmers were not in contact with Chinese farmers or technicians.
12:49How much silk will each worm spin?
12:52In the more productive strain, the thread can reach two kilometers.
12:58As domestic silk production increased, the demand began to shift away from Chinese imports.
13:21Italian weavers mastered advanced techniques to create exquisite silk fabrics
13:26that were sought after across Europe.
13:30At its peak throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, Venice employed 15,000 silk workers.
13:37Today, the city is transformed into a cultural haven for modern arts and eager tourists.
13:43But the remnants of historic Venice can still be discovered by those who know where to look.
13:49It's been a long time.
13:51Hello.
13:52Good morning.
13:53Good morning.
13:54Good morning.
13:55Good morning.
13:56Good morning.
13:57Good morning.
13:58Good morning.
13:59Good morning.
14:00How are you?
14:01Look at this.
14:02Wow.
14:03This is amazing.
14:04Amazing.
14:05Good morning.
14:06Good morning.
14:08Good morning.
14:09Good morning.
14:10You have her honest friends.
14:11These are our stuff in my hand.
14:12This is our hands.
14:13These are our things.
14:14This is our hand.
14:15How do we do?
14:17Rodolfo Bevalacqua is the current owner of Luigi Bevalacqua,
14:19a Venetian silk-weaving company that draws on the techniques of the past,
14:21surprisingly even the ideas of the genius Leonardo da Vinci?
14:23It's like stepping back in time.
14:52Inspired by Chinese silk and driven by an insatiable market demand for the fabric, by the 1500s the Europeans had eventually built the weaving machines needed to make their own.
15:03How long would it take to make a piece of silk?
15:10How long would it take to make a piece of silk?
15:22So, in my opinion, the average is 5 to 10 cm per day, even if in a good day we can produce 50-60 cm.
15:36The machine, or the Jachar machine, is from the 1800s.
15:47While this is the most ancient instrument of the sewing machine.
15:53It's an auditorium designed by Leonardo da Vinci.
15:58It's from the 1600s.
16:01And it works at least once a week.
16:06And it works at least a bit better.
16:30Venice specialised, again, in luxury.
16:33And when they wove, they did the velvet, the most precious textiles.
16:37Or they wove silk with gold and silver.
16:44Look at the colours on this. The way the light comes off the gold is amazing.
16:49The velvet is a type of weave characterised by softness, sheen and dense piled fibres.
16:59It's been a symbol of nobility and royalty throughout the ages.
17:03To this day, Bevelacqua continues this tradition, providing high quality Venetian velvet to prestigious clients,
17:10including the Vatican and various royal palaces.
17:14Because the palaces of Venice are beautiful.
17:20And the only fabric of fabric that could sew these palaces,
17:27was, and is now, the seta.
17:31And Venice became one of the most skilled places to weave the silk.
17:48Highest quality came to Europe, was sold to the courts of Europe,
17:53and sometimes also back to the east,
17:55because the technique that the Venetian developed was quite unique.
17:58You see how a silk dresses well, not only a beautiful lady, but also a womb.
18:07It's so womb.
18:08It gives warmth. It makes it softer. And that's what Venetians loved.
18:12The 1400s and 1500s are the century of the greatest production of silk textiles in Venice.
18:27You had the spinners, you had the dyers, the weavers.
18:35So, all this art really flourished.
18:40And the wealth of the city, the beautiful building that you will still see,
18:44some of them are done also because of the wealth coming from silk.
18:47The evolving marriage of Chinese inspiration and Italian style has sustained the allure of silk through the ages.
18:57Yet the story of silk doesn't end here, as these elegant, natural fibers continue to enchant the next generation of Italian designers.
19:06What sort of thing is the university known for?
19:24Oh, I think it's known for its futuristic and forward world mentality.
19:31Everyone's got a lot of big ideas.
19:33Yes, you're looking for big ideas and new ideas.
19:36Looking for big ideas.
19:37I am pleased to introduce Leonardo.
19:40Hi Leonardo.
19:41Hello.
19:42Hello.
19:43Our master student.
19:44Hi.
19:45So is this your finals project?
19:47Yes, yes it is.
19:48Beautiful dress.
19:49How does silk inspire you in your work?
19:54To me, silk is so important as the way I love to design because it is a super lightweight but it has a kind of strength.
20:05It's a natural fiber so you can dye it.
20:08So for example, this is naturally dyed.
20:10I don't know, how does it feel to be wearing it?
20:12It's very nice.
20:13It's very great.
20:14And I also, the fact that this is natural, that's beautiful.
20:17So yeah, yeah.
20:18It feels very good.
20:19It feels very good.
20:20It feels very good.
20:24This dress, I think it's an homage to the city of Venice.
20:27And to silk, of course.
20:29Thinking about the pleating and the waves and the water in Venice.
20:34The colors, the way it moves.
20:37The main inspiration comes from that.
20:39It makes an amazing ripple when you move.
20:48It's very reminiscent of Venice to me.
20:50Yeah.
20:51It is.
20:52When it's a good day.
20:53This is a beautiful Venice.
20:54This is what I see.
20:55It was the only material possible to use if I wanted to achieve a result like that.
21:09Yeah, it really flows.
21:10You can see the water in it.
21:12Very expressive.
21:14With young designers like Leonardo weaving their own stories into the rich tapestry of
21:25silk's history, we can see that the 5,000-year story of silk doesn't end here.
21:32Today is quite interesting because the raw materials come from China, designed and woven and developed
21:41in Italy and goes back to China where it has a special charm.
21:46Possibly they found our silks now quite exotic.
21:50So maybe things are repeating on the other side as they happened in the past centuries.
21:56Silk is a product of history, culture, and I think the relation based on culture is the only way to understand, really understand each other.
22:12I think that silk represents tradition, the culture of the past, but also the wings for the future, dreams, development, technologies.
22:25I love silk especially for that.
22:31Then when you want something really special in the textile world, there's nothing as special as silk and it will remain.
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