Alb (Embroidered Linen: 1600s; Lace Flounce: 1700s): Art, History and Details

Alb (Embroidered Linen: 1600s; Lace Flounce: 1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This beautiful vestment, called an alb, was worn under other liturgical garments by the clergy who served at the altar. Embroidered with gilt-metal thread flora on a linen ground, it is trimmed with a flounce and cuffs of lace, the most fashionable and expensive material at the time. Its purple silk lining indicates that it belonged to an archbishop. The exquisitely worked bobbin lace consists of two large composite floral designs flanked by popular curved forms on an elaborate bar ground that repeats ten times around the flounce.

Object facts

• Title: Alb
• Date: Embroidered Linen: 1600s; Lace Flounce: 1700s
• Culture: Spain and Flanders
• Type: Garment
• Technique: Plain weave linen embroidered in gold and silver; linen bobbin lace (Point d’Angleterre a Reseau)
• Dimensions: Average: 342.9 x 61 cm (135 x 24 in.)
• Collection: T - Ecclesiastical
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1920.1260

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Mayer-Thurman, Christa C., John Maxon, Aidan Kavanagh, Donald L. Garfield, and Horace T. Allen. Raiment for the Lord's Service: A Thousand Years of Western Vestments. Chicago: Art Institute, 1975.
• Mackie, Louise W. “Opulent Fashion in the Church: A celebration of Jeptha H. Wade II's magnificent textile donations.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 1 (January/February 2017): 8-9.

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.