Shroud of Saint Florent (Saumur)

Shroud of Saint Florent (Saumur)

Italy, 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 14th century
Lampas, silk
Bequest by Barbier de Montault, 1861 
Cl. 3363

The decoration is made up of vertical stripes produced by the colour changes in the warp thread and hence by the patterns evolving within each coloured band. The bands have six different designs: simple diamonds for the symmetry axis; six vine leaves and a bird with upturned tails for band 2; trilobed leaves for band 3; six little birds or dragons in extravagant poses for band 4; a continuous scroll of half-leaves for band 5; and finally the last band has five florets of different shapes, in the centre of which is a small hedgehog. These six units are sparated from one another by a dark yellow mesh decorated with small green oblique lines. The work's assembly shows that the design is reproduced by symmetry on each side of the strip of diamonds, invoking a regularity which is broken by the fact that the coloured stripes follow a rhythm of four, not six: sky, pale yellow or violet, cream, pink. Hence the birds and dragons appear in green on a background which, from right to left, is violet, pink and pale yellow.