Fragment from an Orphrey Band (1300s–1400s): Art, History and Details

Fragment from an Orphrey Band (1300s–1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The Cleveland Museum of Art has a number of band fragments that may have been created in a workshop in Cologne, Germany, on the Rhine River. They may have been produced in series and could be adapted for various contexts. Such bands are found, for example, in very similar form on the nearby chasuble, or sleeveless outer vestment. The inscriptions Jesus and Mary on the bands also point to such a use.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment from an Orphrey Band
• Date: 1300s–1400s
• Culture: Germany, Cologne
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Linen, silk, metal-wrapped thread: compound twill weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 47.8 x 8.3 cm (18 13/16 x 3 1/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Ecclesiastical
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1918.921

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Jaques, Renate. Deutsche textilkunst in ihrer entwicklung bis zur gegenwart. Berlin: Rembrandt-verlag, 1942.
• "Gothic Art 1360-1440." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 7 (1963): 174-215.
• Sporbeck, Gudrun. "Liturgical vestments adorned with Cologne bands over the centuries." In Iconography of Liturgical Textiles in the Middle Ages. Eds. Evelin Wetter, Michael Bangert, Abegg-Stiftung, Michael Bangert, and Abegg-Stiftung. Riggisberger Berichte, 18. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2010.

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.