Membership
Become a member and enjoy free access to exhibitions, previews, priority booking, freshly curated content and much more.
Join today
Textiles: Prehistory to 1700
Online course
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Using archaeological fragments and more recent textiles and paintings, we will learn how technologies and designs developed and how textiles have been used as symbols of wealth and prestige.
Scroll down to find out more information about this course.
V&A Academy Online art history courses bring you all the richness and rigour of the V&A through an easy-to-use platform built with the latest Microsoft technology.
Learn wherever, whenever. With V&A Academy Online, you can log in to view lectures live and pose your questions in the Q&A, or view the recording later in your own time. Download lecture notes, copies of the slides, and additional study materials from our secure learning environment. Then join the conversation: share your perspective with your fellow students, and support each other in your further enquiries outside of class time.
To find out more, including about how we use your personal data, click on "How do our online courses work?"
Read more
Course Director
Jennifer Wearden
Jennifer Wearden was Senior Curator of Textiles in the Department of Furniture, Textiles & Fashion until 2005. With experience of the textile industry in Lancashire and 28 years working with the textile collection in the V&A, she has co-authored several popular V&A books and has devised and run highly successful courses on textiles and dress
V&A courses have been a lifeline through lockdown, and now beyond it. So many different paths to follow from recommendations from Jennifer or fellow students. I cannot thank you enough. V&A Academy Online Student - Silk course, Spring 2022
Course overview
Textiles are very fragile and although they may once have been fabrics of great beauty, they do not last. However, with the development of archaeology and where favourable conditions have allowed cloth to survive, we can learn a lot about the textile skills of our ancestors and what they were weaving, embroidering and wearing.
After an introduction to fibres, structures and dyes we will explore archaeological textiles from Asia, the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and South America and see how technologies and designs developed and spread. Moving into the Middle Ages and then into the 16th and 17th centuries, our knowledge of textiles will increase from a study of paintings and surviving pieces and we will see how textiles were used as furnishings, ecclesiastical vestments and fashionable clothing and how they could be ‘read’ as indicators of wealth, learning and status.
V&A Academy Online. A learning environment you can trust.
V&A Academy Online courses are built using the latest Microsoft software. Tune in to expert lectures live, or catch up later on demand. Download handouts and presentations. Join the discussion in a secure, closed class environment, wherever you are.
Enrol now
Online course: Textiles: Prehistory to 1700
22 September 2022 - 8 December 2022
£395.00
Need help enrolling? Talk to the admissions team:
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Open 9.30 - 17.30, Monday to Sunday (closed 24-26 December)