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Tag: Late Medieval
This goldwork tutorial shows you how to make a simple padded background for your goldwork or stumpwork embroidery. We saw this technique on the cope hood from Tuscany made in the first quarter of the 16th century. The method produces a nicely textured and firm background. It would look lovely with a stumpwork flower, butterfly…
We continue our exploration of medieval goldwork from Tuscany with a couple of stunning orphreys. One is kept in a museum, one in a Cathedral, and the third is in a private collection. In 2019, they were displayed side by side in Castello Buonconsiglio. All three are of exceptional quality, both in design and embroidery…
Last week and the week before, we looked at beautifully pearl-embroidered mitres from Italy and France. Today, we will look at probably the most spectacular pearl-embroidered mitre of them all: the mitre made by Hans Plock for Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg in AD 1514 in Halle, Germany. The piece is permanently displayed at the Rüstkammer…
Last week, we looked at the pearl-embroidered mitre of St Isidoro, which dates to the second quarter of the 14th-century. Today’s pearl-embroidered mitre is slightly younger and dates to the last quarter of the 14th-century and was likely made in Paris. It was once housed in Sainte-Chapelle, the 13th-century royal chapel in the heart of…
The Saint Stefano church, one of the churches of the seven-churches complex in Bologna, houses a spectacular pearl-embroidered mitre from the second quarter of the 14th century. The iconography is not your average Christian fare with dragons, birds, and lion masks amidst foliage. It is, in fact, so rare that no comparable pieces are known.…
By now, you probably know that chasing embroidered medieval vestments is kinda my thing :). Although I am fortunate enough to be able to travel regularly, a lot of my research happens behind a computer screen. Trailing through publications, especially the literature references, is how I find new-to-me pieces. And related information to these pieces.…
Last week, we looked at five different embroidered versions of the same Adoration of the Magi design. By changing materials and embroidery techniques, these late 15th and early 16th century embroideries look quite different from each other. The scene was part of four chasubles and a loose chasuble cross. But what about the other scenes…
If you have followed this blog for a while, you already know that medieval goldwork embroidery was mass-produced. The designs were used more than once, sometimes even on the same vestment. Survived have mainly the simpler single-figure orphreys or the, possibly block-printed, naive embroidered scenes from Germany. But that’s not all. Even very complex scenes…
Last week, I wrote about the embroidered late medieval vestments on display in the St Nicolai Church in Kalkar. We looked in depth at the richly embroidered chasuble donated by Wolter van Riswick in AD 1530. This week, we’ll examine a splendidly embroidered cope and dalmatic, also kept in the church in Kalkar. These vestments…
Last year, I visited the St Nicolai Church in Kalkar. The church inventory lists more than 100 medieval vestments in AD 1543.