The garden of health
Blind man with remedy for corns
Head of the Virgin
Guidonian hand
Title: Woman’s smock Place:England Date: c. 1600 Medium & technique: Linen, hand-embroidered with coloured silks Dimensions: 40 x 1390 mm (bodice and sleeves) Themes: Bodies - Inside & Outside Collection: (c) the Whitworth, The University of Manchester The embroideries shown in this detail – featuring carnations, foxgloves and honeysuckle – decorate an early-seventeenth-century woman’s smock, or shift. Originally full length, only the patterned bodice and sleeves have survived and it is likely that the owner cut off the plain, lower half of the garment after the linen became marked or damaged. One of the functions of an undergarment like this smock was to draw sweat and impurities away from the body and various contemporary authors mused on the consequences of wearing dirty or clean linens. From sweet-smelling flowers to a shower of raindrops and clouds anticipating a storm, the embroideries on the smock remind us of the influence of the environment on the body and the role of this garment in shielding the wearer from the hazards of bad air and excess heat or cold. Elizabeth Currie, Victoria and Albert Museum/ RCA
Woman’s smock
Great Horse of Troy
Office of the Dead
Liturgical gloves
Nightcap
Profile of a human monster
Monstrous foetus
King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria
Surgery patient
Punto in aria lace