Chasuble
Unknown Artist
1700s
Medium
Silk and metallic threads: embroidery
Dimensions
104.8 × 66.6 cm
Classification
Embroidery
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade
Accession Number
1916.1440
About this artwork
Sheaves of wheat and bunches of grapes, symbols of the bread and wine of the Mass, are embroidered with silver-metal thread amid scrolling leaves on the green silk-damask ground of this chasuble. Liturgical colors—white, red, green, and black, purple, or blue—mandated by Pope Innocent III in the late 1100s were widely ignored by the 1700s, replaced primarily by a lavish use of gold, silver, and pastel silk thread embroidered on white silk fabrics. Long matching stoles were worn under chasubles i...