Report: From the Massaie Rurali to Domus: researching Gegia Bronzini’s contribution to Italian textile design | Research Access Grant (Student) recipient

Reports

3 March, 2025 -

Mariachiara Tiboni, master’s student in History of Art and Conservation of the Artistic Heritage at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, reports on research into Gegia Bronzini’s contribution to Italian textile design, which was supported by the DHS Research Access Grant (Student)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My master’s dissertation explored the life and work of Gegia Bronzini, a lesser-known weaver and textile designer who was active in the North of Italy between the 1930s and 1970s. The research led me to visit archives and institutions in the Venetian area, where Bronzini began her career, and in the Como province, where she moved at the end of the Second World War. The support of the Research Access Grant (student) allowed me to spend a 10-day period in Bregnano, a village a few kilometres from the city of Como, where Gegia Bronzini’s historical archive is located.

In her textile works, Gegia Bronzini combined elements of the folk textile tradition with contemporary design experimentations. Throughout her life, she remained true to the handloom weaving technique she learned from a peasant woman at the beginning of her career, rejecting the adoption of mechanical looms. The results of these choices were clothing and furniture textiles with a striking contemporary aesthetic, whose abstract geometric designs were patiently woven with a supplementary weft technique (Figures 1-2). Bronzini’s textiles are still produced today on old two-shaft hand looms by Tessile Officina, the textile company that owns the Gegia Bronzini brand and its historical archive.

My research aimed to provide a complete and cohesive account of Gegia Bronzini’s work, which is still missing to date, focusing particularly on how the interplay between tradition and innovation evolved throughout her career.

The research I conducted in the historical archive at Tessile Officina was crucial from this point of view. Located in a bright and beautifully curated room on the second floor of the building which houses the weaving workshop, the archive preserves various types of materials spanning from the 1930s to the present day (Figure 2-3).

During the week I spent there, I focused my attention on the period between the 1930s and the 1970s, when Gegia Bronzini was active, engaging with three types of sources: publications featuring Bronzini and her works; historical photographs portraying the workshop, weavers at work, and textiles (Figure 4 and cover image); and finally, samples of historical textiles. While few first-hand written documents or weaving notes were available, through the analysis of the photographs and fabric samples, I gained a good understanding of the production processes, techniques, and material used, and of the design of old textiles, most of which are now lost.

The opportunity to spend an extended period in the archive, while in contact with the people who carry on Gegia Bronzini’s legacy today, was an invaluable resource for my research. Alongside consulting archival materials, I had the chance to examine the historical textiles together with some of the current weavers and, thus gaining a deeper understanding of the weaving process and its challenges. Moreover, I carried out interviews with former workers and collaborators of Bronzini’s workshop, which enriched my knowledge both of biographical elements and business history.

Besides the time spent carrying out archival work and interviews in Gegia Bronzini’s historical archive, during my time in Bregnano I spent some days in the nearby libraries of Cantù and Como, where I consulted the local newspaper digital archives, searching for mentions of Bronzini and her work. Finally, I paid a visit to the Como Silk Museum: this helped me gain a better understanding of the lively textile district in which Gegia Bronzini found herself when, in 1946, she moved from Venice to the Como province.

I am deeply grateful for the support I received from the Design History Society. My trip to Bregnano proved to be of central value for the development of my master’s dissertation, allowing me to spend plenty of time studying some of the most important sources for my research.