Procurator’s Velvet Stole
Unknown Artist
c. 1575– 1600
Medium
dyed silk; velvet in two heights of cut pile (pile on pile, alto e basso), woven as two stole widths
Dimensions
142.2 × 71.1 cm · mounted: 147.3 × 77.5 cm
Classification
Velvet
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Bequest of John L. Severance
Accession Number
1942.829
About this artwork
Venetian law obliged senators to wear colored textiles, in contrast to other male citizens, who wore black. The Procurator, a very high level government official, was required to wear a red stole, a cloth worn over one shoulder. So that it would read the same from front and back, the pattern reverses halfway, done by the weaver’s assistant on a drawloom. The line down the center is part of the original manufacture, enabling two stoles to be cut apart for use. The survival of an entire, uncut loo...