Cleveland Museum of Art

Chasuble

Date

1700s

Medium

Silk and metallic threads: embroidery

Culture

Italy or Spain

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The chasuble’s exquisite symmetrical decoration highlights its central panel where three illusionary gold containers hold skillfully shaded fruit in pastel silk tones. Delicately curving motifs enhance the side panels along with finely stitched strawberries in so-called French knots. This liturgical chasuble and other vestments, worn over a white alb with lace, were embroidered by professional specialists, such as experts who shaded colored silks or secured gold thread, in early versions of assembly lines that were usually in secular workrooms or in convents. The church or commissioner supplied the raw materials and paid a fee for the work.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.