I swear there isn’t a topic that a) isn’t covered somewhere on the internet and b) doesn’t become interesting when you read up on it. That goes for velvet as well. Velvet is woven on a special loom that weaves two thicknesses of the material at the same time. The two pieces are then cut apart to create the pile effect. It is a complicated process and even after the introduction of industrial power looms, well-made velvet remains a fairly costly fabric. It is associated with nobility, although it was first in use for clergy (they knew luxury when they saw it…)

With regard to art, velvet is usually associated with velvet painting, the epitome of Kitsch.  As it turns out, though, these paintings have a rather interesting history. (http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/velvet-underdogs-in-praise-of-the-paintings-the-art-world-loves-to-hate/) “The 13th-century merchant traveler Marco Polo recalled seeing painted velvet portraits of Hindu deities like Vishnu and Ganesh in India. Soon, Europeans were painting saints and allegories on the “sacred” fabric of velvet to hang in churches instead of woven tapestries. This practice was particularly popular with Russian Orthodox priests in the Caucasus Mountains. In the 1500s, Spanish conquistadors brought velvet to the Philippines and Mexico, where peasants in Jalisco created the custom of painting on velvet skirts and party dresses, which modern-day Mexican painters often cite as the roots of their tradition.” And then things took off with the bored Victorian ladies who painted with stencils on velvet. There is discussion now among the art historians if it qualifies as folk art, or as anti-art in reaction to “the snobbery  of the fine-art world and upper middle-class aspirational sensibilities.”

Classical painters relished a good fabric as can be seen in the Johann Heinrich the Elder Tischbein (1568 – 1625) portrait of Marie Robert, his wife. Turns out there was one painter, Jan Brueghel the Elder who was actually called “Velvet Brueghel,” but not because of his lush paintings but due to his wardrobe that tended towards excess according to preserved invoices (he also had Titians hanging in his home in Antwerp and collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens.) Ah, those were the times when a artist got paid…….