Chasuble

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two different red velvet cloths of gold have been cut, patched and collaged together here. Of good quality, but unusual in both technique and design, these can be attributed to Spanish weavers responding to- and subverting- more traditional Italian velvet conventions. In the late nineteenth, perhaps early twentieth century, these were paired with fragmentary embroidered orphreys depicting five of Christ's disciples, salvaged from some other piece, to create this chasuble-like garment. Too large to actually have been worn comfortably, this "vestment" was most likely assembled by a dealer to appeal to the art market than for use within an ecclesiastic context.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art