As part of the 2020 exhibition,"Ornamenta Episcopi: Liturgical Vestments of the Olomouc Cathedral," held at St. Wenceslas Cathedral in Olomouc, Czech Republic, three sets of vestments coming out of the exhibition -- and from two very different periods of time -- caught my interest.
The first is a red silk lamé 'Arma Christi' chasuble dated to the mid-1600's. The Armi Christi type of chasuble -- a chasuble containing various symbols of the Passion of Christ -- is something we have often featured here, but those that we have shown here to date have been primarily manifest in a very 'rustic,' one might even say 'folksy' quality. In the case of Olomouc's cathedral however, their Arma Christi chasuble takes on a much more refined form. The exhibition's curators (Radek Martinek and Jitka Jonová) identify the chasuble as having been made between 1655-1660, having come from Rome, specifically from the workshop of Angelo Broncone who served the papal court.
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| Detail showing the Veil of Veronica |
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| Detail showing the pillar of the scourging |
Also coming out of Olomouc's treasury of vestments is this beautiful 1660 mitre which features four Fathers/Doctors of the Church. Mitres of this sort -- meaning, with figurative depictions -- would become much more rare only a few decades later, with the predominant trend shifting toward non-figurative decoration.
The last set of paraments coming from this collection shifts our attention nearly 300 years into the future. The chasuble in question is Marian and dated to 1925 having been designed by the architect Josef Fanta (+1954). This particular design represents the sort of experimentation that was taking place in very late nineteenth and early twentieth century with full-fledged scenes being attempted on vestments.
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