Chasuble

Unknown

16th century · Silk and metal thread · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Though, at first glance, this chasuble– the tabard-like garment worn by a Catholic priest during church services– resembles sixteenth-century work, it can be attributed to artisans working in the mid-nineteenth century. The velvet is thin, low quality and relatively modern; gold-colored braid has been stitched to it to evoke the much more complicated multiple-piled patterning of a Renaissance 'cloth of gold'. The embroidery of the central orphrey panel is well-executed, using the same techniques as much earlier works, but the designs reveal a nineteenth-century sweetness in their aesthetic, especially facial features, and the raw materials are, again, of much lower grade quality, resulting in the degradation around the chest area, a result of wear-and-tear from when this was worn by the priest.

Artist

Unknown

Date

16th century

Medium

Silk and metal thread

Culture

Italian or Spanish

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1916