Procurator’s Velvet Stole (c. 1575–1600): Art, History and Details

Procurator’s Velvet Stole (c. 1575–1600) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Venetian law obliged senators to wear colored textiles, in contrast to other male citizens, who wore black. The Procurator, a very high level government official, was required to wear a red stole, a cloth worn over one shoulder. So that it would read the same from front and back, the pattern reverses halfway, done by the weaver’s assistant on a drawloom. The line down the center is part of the original manufacture, enabling two stoles to be cut apart for use. The survival of an entire, uncut loom width is extremely rare. The velvet has two different heights of cut pile. The longer pile, which appears lighter, forms the pattern.

Object facts

• Title: Procurator’s Velvet Stole
• Date: c. 1575–1600
• Culture: Italy, Venice
• Type: Velvet
• Technique: Alto e basso silk velvet
• Dimensions: Overall: 142.2 x 71.1 cm (56 x 28 in.); Mounted: 147.3 x 77.5 cm (58 x 30 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1942.829

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.
• Lisby, Darnell-Jamal, William Griswold, Matteo Augello, Alessandra Arezzi Boza, Massimiliano Capella, Luke Meagher, Stefania Ricci, and Cleveland Museum of Art. Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025.
• Lisby, Darnell-Jamal. “The Road to Renaissance to Runway: Planning a Fashion Exhibition.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 65, no. 2 (2025): 10-11.

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.