Chasubles of Seven Italian Cardinals of the Eighteenth Century ~ Liturgical Arts Journal

If you want to see some of the finest embroidery work of the 18th century, you need only search out the chasubles of Italian cardinals from that period. Due to their particular rank in relation to the particular solemnity of the rites they would have celebrated in important churches and cathedrals, it represents some of the very best work of the time. One will see everything from the lighter, more whimsical embroideries of the earlier part of that century, to the heavier laden and more textured one's of the later part.

I stumbled upon these particular examples while working on another article and they struck me as simply too good to not share. While it was tempting to split them up into separate articles, I think there is merit in viewing them as a whole as it helps to provide an insight into the stylistic evolution that was taking place coming out of the 17th century into the 18th, and then leaving the 18th and proceeding into the 19th.