Burse (Corporal Case) (1600s): Art, History and Details

Burse (Corporal Case) (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This sumptuous polychrome velvet displays a central vase with abundant flora and exotic leaves flanking curving blossoming fronds on a gilt-metal thread ground. The pattern was created with five colors of cut and uncut (loops) velvet pile. Only the pile warps for the lush green velvet occur across the entire cloth, while each additional color appears in vertical stripes—crimson, peach, rose, and purple. These widely acclaimed velvets from Genoa were the most colorful woven in Europe. Both the long stole and the shorter maniple are insignia of the office of deacons, priests, and the higher clergy. The stole was worn under a chasuble according to the office and the maniple was hung on the left forearm. The burse is a stiff receptacle in which the folded corporal, a white linen cloth on which the sacred bread and chalice are placed during the Mass, is carried to and from the altar. The upper fabric matches the chasuble, the bottom is a plain silk, and the interior has an obligatory linen lining.

Object facts

• Title: Burse (Corporal Case)
• Date: 1600s
• Culture: Italy, Genoa
• Type: Velvet
• Technique: Silk velvet: cut and uncut, metal thread lace
• Dimensions: Overall: 26.1 x 26.1 cm (10 1/4 x 10 1/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Ecclesiastical
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1916.1443.3

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Phillips, Amanda. Sea Change: Ottoman Textiles between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. 2021.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.