Musée national du Moyen Âge - RMN
Tapestries, Cloths and Embroidery
 
 
Jesse's tree


Jesse’s Tree


Italy (velvet) / Flanders ( embroidered orphrey),
15th century Chasuble ; silk, gold thread H. 1.205 m; l. 0.64 m Guy Ladrière, 1986

Cl. 23269



In liturgical clothing, the chasuble is the tunic without sleeves that the priest wears to celebrate mass. Cut from precious materials –here velvet cut with Italian ironwork motifs- it is decorated on the back with stripes, known as orphrey, in the shape of a cross. This orphrey is generally embroidered –here in the theme of the Old Testament, Jesse’s Tree. This king of Israel, ancestor of the Virgin, sees her appear in his lineage with Christ. The rich embroidery work combines silk threads worked on goldbeater’s skin for the background, and in the foreground, the people embroidered in slit point are an example of the Flemish workshops at the end of the Middle Ages

 


 

 

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