Chasuble

This chasuble is the principal church vestment worn by a priest at the celebration of the Christian Mass. An image of the Crucifixion can be seen with the Virgin and St John at the foot of the Cross and angels holding chalices in which to catch the blood of Christ. The chasuble is made up of the favoured luxury materials of the time, having an embroidered orphrey (the decorative piece attached to the chasuble), which dates from the later part of the 15th century, applied to a sumptuous velvet ground dating to about 1430-1470. The orphrey was probably originally attached to another chasuble and was cut off and re-used here. It is likely that the orphrey, with its very distinctive style of bold images and figures with large heads, was worked in Bohemia. Embroidery was highly regarded in the medieval period in Europe and at its finest matched goldwork and painting.

The velvet was made in Italy or Spain, then the centres for velvet weaving in Europe, and provided an ideal foil for rich embroidery. The style of 'pomegranate' shaped motifs on the voided velvet (a technique whereby the design is produced by leaving areas free of velvet) came to typify Renaissance textile design.