Opus florentinum is a style of embroidery that is characterised by the use of split stitch and surface couched gold thread. It flourished in the 14th and 15th centuries, and its products could and can be found in church treasuries all over Europe. Just like Opus anglicanum, Opus florentinum has received considerable scholarly attention. The embroidery exhibition at the Musée de Cluny in 2019-2020 devoted a separate section to this type of embroidery. Let’s explore by studying an antependium now kept in the Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon, France. It was made in the 14th century in Italy, likely in Florence.
Today, the antependium measures 22.5 x 223.5 cm. However, as the first and the last scenes are clearly cut, it would have been even larger in the past. From left to right, we see: the Last Supper, Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Betrayal of Christ, Christ carrying the cross, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Harrowing of Hell, Noli me tangere and the Road to Emmaus appearance. In between each of these scenes stands an Apostle. As these apostles all look rather similar and lack specific attributes, they cannot be identified.
As said, the embroidery has been cut on both sides. Can we reconstruct what is now lost? I think we can! In the Crucifixion scene above, we see that the Apostles are turned towards this central scene. Convention has it that there are 12 apostles. We only have four on either side of the central scene, which makes eight in total. Adding an apostle to the cut sides of the first and last scenes brings the total to 10. Still two missing :). We thus need at least two more scenes to add the remaining apostles. How about the Entry into Jerusalem at the beginning and the Ascension at the end? This would result in an embroidery that measures about 22.5 x 337.5 cm.
As said, the embroidery techniques of Opus florentinum are split stitch and couched gold threads. The scene of the Carrying of the Cross above shows that the split stitching is directional and shows strong contrasts. This is also a characteristic of contemporary Opus anglicanum. An indication that embroidery traditions were not as isolated as we often think.
The couched gold threads are treated very differently in Opus florentinum than they are in Opus anglicanum. Firstly, the threads are surface couched. There is no underside couching in Opus florentinum. The gold threads used in the clothing of the figures run in the direction of the flow of those garments. Again, this seems characteristic of 14th-century embroidery and can be seen throughout Europe. However, there is also a new invention: using string padding (in this case, cotton) to create a scrolling foliage pattern for the golden background. Although I am not sure yet when or where this first appeared, it is present in the embroidery on this antependium.
And there are all sorts of other lovely embroidery techniques present in these cute scenes (is that really one of the Apostles balancing his stool on only two legs?). See the tablecloth in the above scene of the Last Supper? It has a diamond diaper pattern. Very subtly done tone in tone. Bundles of silk are laid horizontally and couched down with the same colour thread to form the diaper pattern. It looks like the embroiderer tried to create a damask tablecloth.
Another endearing detail is the tiny white flowers at the bottom of most scenes. No strawberry flowers this time, but daisies instead. The daisy stands for purity, innocence, true love and gaiety. In the case of the scene of the Last Supper, all these attributes are applicable to the embroidered story.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be looking at this Opus florentinum a bit more. Florence’s unique position at the heart of art production in the late Middle Ages means that art historians can often link designers, embroiderers, and embroideries. Having names just makes looking at these embroideries, which were made 600 to 700 years ago, so much more special!
Literature
Descatoire, C. (Ed.), 2019. L’art en broderie au moyen âge: Autour des collections du musée de Cluny. Musée Cluny, Paris.
1 Comment
kathryn · March 2, 2026 at 9:53 pm
I can imagine the the breathtaking beauty when tit was first created.