The Seventeenth century is the century of the Baroque, of the triumph of shape more than of content, in which the ephemeral and the ceremonial are the standards of everyday life. The Italian society of that time was both subjected to the Spanish domination and dominated by the Catholic counter Reformation that will determine a rigid control of the Church over the entire Italian intellectual and literary life.

We are inside a very rich, aristocratic room, with an adjoining chapel, in a Venetian palace with four figures: a man, standing, a lady, seated on a large Baroque armchair holding a small perfume bottle in her left hand, a child with a flower in her hand, and, not too far, a priest beside the entrance of the chapel. Despite the fact that the costumes and the peculiar fontange hairstyle of the lady are inspired by the French fashions of the end of the century, the setting is pretty Venetian, with the representation of the precious miniaturized laces (ROSE STITCH, PUNTO NEVE, PUNTO CORALLINO) created by the Serenissima to compete with the rapid increase of the diffusion of the POINT DE FRANCE.

• To compete with the remarkable popularity, even in our country, of the point de France, it was necessary to invent something new; Venice therefore launched on the fashion stage of the end of the Seventeenth century the rose stitch: the decorative motives and the reliefs are miniaturized, the padding disappeared, the inflorescences are represented in a much more stylized way and in much smaller size, braiding and overlapping as in a very intricate and disorganized whirl. (D.D. Poli, Il Merletto Veneziano, Novara, 1998, pp. 70-72).

• Around 1680 the Serenissima, with another flash of brilliance, created two other new laces: the first is composed by minuscule decorative elements, so small to give the impression of a magic night snowfall. An authentic triumph. In the punto corallino, the miniaturization goes a step further, the space appearing entirely filled by an intricate forest of thin branches moving in all directions and echoing the ramifications of sea corals. (A. Cantagallo, Ricamatori e Merlettaie, Foligno, 1991, p.77).

• A legend tells that the punto corallino was inspired by a branch of sea coral donated by a sailor to his fiancée before he left. The young women, a Venetian lace maker, thought to reproduce the coral in her needle works and began to imitate it. The result was so amazing that, soon, other lace makers reproduced it too, spreading the technique of this precious lace. (A.M.S., Point and Pillow Lace, London, 1899, p.49).

• The beauty of the Italian laces was already established during the Renaissance; the one who first made the refinement of the Italian taste known abroad was Caterina dei Medici, who married Henry II of France in 1533. Once she arrived in France, she brought with her a rich wardrobe, where there were lots of furnishings, gowns, jewels and, of course, her laces, beside a lace-pattern designer, the Venetian Federico Vinciolo. (M. Eirwen Jones, The Romance of Lace, London, 1951, p. 37).

• The fast diffusion and success of Venetian laces at the end of the Seventeenth century were undoubtedly favoured by the revocation of the Nantes edict that harshly hit France, since about 200.000 Protestant French, mostly craftsmen and rich middle class, were forced to expatriate abroad, where they established their commercial activities, enriching the coffers of their new countries. (A. Cantagallo, Ricamatori e Merlettaie, Foligno, 1991, p.77).