Chasuble

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Against a deep purple ground- shot with gold (achieved using a partially visible, lancé supplementary gilded weft)- exquisitely delicate figurative motifs of scrolling foliage and passion flower blooms are embroidered. The incredibly skillful embroiderers have manipulated golden precious metal threads of every thickness and profile- wrapped, drawn, coiled, lamella- to achieve subtle variations and shading. The fortunate ecclesiastic for whom this tabard-like chasuble was made is not known: the space for his coat of arms on the reverse of the garment has been left tantalizingly blank. Vestments of comparable richness, technique, and design remain in the Italian musei diocesani of Osimo and Bergamo.

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