Back of a chasuble

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This garment is almost certainly a dealer's composite object, assembled towards the end of the nineteenth century to meet the demands of the lively antiques' market. Though resembling a priestly chasuble, it is unconventionally large and combines a very low quality, thin and relatively modern patched velvet with a much older set of embroideries. The embroideries have been very heavily restored, indeed the saint figures (Saints Paul and Barbara on the front; the Virgin and Child, Saints Peter and Lucy on the reverse) may have been cut out of a historic textile and reapplied onto modern, embroidered niches designed in pastiche Renaissance style.

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