Chasuble

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This chasuble– the tabard-like garment worn by a Roman Catholic priest in church– is part of a larger set of matching vestments in The Met's collection, comprising towel-like Maniple (43.22.4b), rectangular Bourse (43.22.4c) and Stole (43.22.4d). Made out of bright, mustard yellow machine-woven moiré silk, the whole is rendered even more brilliant by central embroidered motifs executed in shiny, gold-colored thread. The overall effect quirkily combines a centuries-old tradition of ecclesiastic garments with colorful, machine-made nineteenth-century technology.

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