Continuing on with our Pentecost considerations this week, I wanted to share a rather unique set that I came across recently. Many eighteenth century vestments were absent of pictorial imagery -- there are exceptions of course, but the fact of the matter is that eighteenth century vestment work primarily rested on beautiful textiles and vegetal embroideries. Where pictorial imagery might be used during this period, it tended to primarily manifest itself either in the form of royal or episcopal stemma (ie. coats of arms) or occasionally a small, patronal saint might appear within a small cartouche located where the stemma might otherwise be found -- generally at the base of the back of the chasuble. As I say, there are exceptions to this, but this was the dominant trend of the period.
So it was then that when I came across this set, dated to the eighteenth century, inclusive of a large embroidered depiction of the dove of the Holy Spirit on the shield of the cope, its relative rarity within the body of eighteenth century work certainly struck me.
The cope is the focus here, but it is worth noting that it is actually a solemn Mass set -- though we do not have all of the pieces to share with you regrettably. But the cope alone is sufficient for our purposes today as it would appear that it was the primary 'host' for this symbolic imagery (as the chasuble from the set, which we can show you, has no such imagery. As such, it is safe to assume that neither would the dalmatic and tunicle.)
Here. then, is the cope from the set:
Some may be struck by the beautiful and exotic red silk textile. This is a style that was made popular in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, originating out of Lyon, France and eventually spreading to Italy. It is a style termed "bizarre" but it should be noted that this pejorative term was something only coined in the mid twentieth century. (Those interested in seeing other examples of this type of silk used in the design of paraments may wish to see our article on the topic, Bizarre Silks of the Eighteenth Century.)
This is quite pleasing in its own right of course, but as noted, it was really the inclusion of the distinctive and heavily embroidered dove on the shield of the cope that really caught my attention and led to our considerations here today. As you shall see, it is a beautifully embroidered image of the dove which has been surrounded by a metallic gold burst of flames emanating from the dove.
In terms of the other pieces from the set, what we can show you are the chasuble, the stoles and also the burse from the set. As you will see from these closer views of the silk, it seems to carry design elements intended to depict peacock feathers.
It might well seem odd to our modern mindset that the cope should bear such an embroidered image, but the chasuble, dalmatic and tunicle from the set do not. Indeed, it would almost seem counterintuitive or backward to us. However, I believe this simply reflects the reality that we noted at the beginning of our article: namely, that such figurative depictions in vestment works dating to this period are the exception rather than the rule.
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