Embroidered Front of an Altar (1600s–1700s): Art, History and Details

Embroidered Front of an Altar (1600s–1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This spectacular cloth with raised three-dimensional embroidery embellished the front of an altar. Lavishly applied gilt-metal thread creates architectural embellishments enhanced by grand vases displaying sheaves of wheat in the upper corners and bunches of grapes in the center of the fringed over-frontal, referring to the bread and wine of the Mass. The central coat of arms represents the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, a Roman Catholic mendicant order established in 1218 by Saint Peter Nolasco in the city of Barcelona, Spain, then in the principality of Catalonia (crown of Aragon).

Object facts

• Title: Embroidered Front of an Altar
• Date: 1600s–1700s
• Culture: Italy or Spain
• Type: Embroidery
• Technique: Satin and silk: embroidery
• Dimensions: Overall: 108 x 209.5 cm (42 1/2 x 82 1/2 in.)
• Collection: T - Ecclesiastical
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1916.901

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• "The Relation of the Museum to Local Industry." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 10 (1918): 122-131.
• "Exhibitions." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 6 (November/December 2016): 4.

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.