Piece
Unknown Artist
19th century
Medium
Silk on linen
Dimensions
L. 11 1/2 x W. (at bottom) 9 x (at top) 4 inches (29.2 x 22.9 x 10.2 cm)
Classification
Textiles-Embroidered
Culture
possibly Italian
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1909
Accession Number
09.50.2445
Art Historical Context
This exquisite embroidered textile, simply titled *Piece*, hails from the 19th century and attributed to an unknown artist, possibly Italian. Crafted from vibrant silk threads on a linen ground, it measures 11½ inches long, tapering from 9 inches wide at the bottom to inches at the top, forming a graceful trapezoidal shape. Such dimensions suggest it may have served as a decorative panel, perhaps for ecclesiastical vestments, furnishings, or personal adornment—common uses for finely worked textiles in European households and churches of the era. Embroidery in silk on linen exemplifies the me...