Embroideries of the Zygomalas Museum

“Embroidery has always expressed the nobility of folk culture.” With this phrase, Spyros Stergiou sets the perspective through which he sought to understand and artistically present the vast and unique collection of embroideries housed in the Zygomalas Museum in Avlonas, Attica.
The museum’s high-quality embroideries constitute perhaps the most significant surviving body of Greek embroidery from the early twentieth century. Stergiou’s book reveals their true dimension within the diachronic development of Greek folk culture, approaching them from the perspectives of art history as well as social, historical, national, and anthropological study.
Beyond presenting the biography and cultural contribution of the Zygomalas couple, the author records the techniques and stitches, the use of embroideries in traditional dress, and provides—through a scholarly approach—a catalogue of the museum’s embroidery and tapestry works, accompanied by numerous photographs and related visual material.