This elegant panel served as a dressmaker's sample for the left front panel of a fashionable woman's dress. As increased naturalistic rendering and three-dimensional effects began to characterize mid-eighteenth century fabrics, they were sometimes embellished by raised embroidery and auxiliary ornamental elements. Here, a silk net, or lacis, provides an illusionary surface that further enhances the embroidery against the dark background. In the 1770s the master weaver and designer Philippe de Lasalle (1723-1804) introduced the use of the medallion, a separate element or embroidery enclosing a portrait or small motif that was applied to a woven fabric.