Chasuble

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This modest chasuble– the tabard-like garment worn by a Roman Catholic priest over the alb and other clothing whilst leading services in church– exemplifies middle-range eighteenth-century production. It was tailored from a mass-produced, but appealing, satin in which multiple supplementary wefts create a floral pattern in a palette of green, pink and blue against a white ground articulated by mat and glossy white silk. At some point, probably during the nineteenth century, the chasuble, doubtless exhibiting multiple signs of wear-and-tear, underwent an intensive restoration campaign, in which another machine-woven floral textile was used to patch holes around the chest area, and during which the chasuble’s front was cut to a more fashionable, fiddle-back silhouette.

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