In the past we have featured some historical leather veatments as well as some of the leather antependia that can still be procured from contempoary atelier's such as Lutson, a firm located in Gascony, France. In the course of some other, unrelated research, I happened to come across yet another antique example of gilt, coloured leatherwork, here serving as an altar frontal.
The example in question is located in Quebec City -- the oldest walled city in North America -- and is dated to sometime between the period of 1675-1725 in terms of its manufacture.
Originally this piece was stretched onto a frame by which it would have been attached to the face of the altar. While that frame is no longer present here, one can still get a sense of how it would have looked when placed on an altar.
Technically speaking, the curators responsible for cataloguing this unique piece comment on its construction as follows: "The leather is embossed with interlacing rocaille motifs, flowers, and acanthus leaves, treated with silver leaf and polychrome. The gilded areas were achieved by applying a yellow varnish. The silver background is finely guilloché."
Here are a few details taken from the antependium which will perhaps give you both a better sense of the designs found in the work, the textural qualities of the work, and the unique construction of leather antependia such as this:
Most importantly however, the design includes a central medallion that showcases two angels kneeling in adoration at the foot of the empty Cross of Christ, a cross which bears only the titulus crucis and Christ's crown of thorns, but no corpus -- thus jointly signifying the Passion, Death as well as the Resurrection simultaneously. This frontal would have likely been used for solemn festal occasions that called for white/gold as the colour of the day, so we can suspect it was likely used at times such as Easter and possibly others such as Christmas as well.
Photo credits: Catherine Levesque 2021, © Le Monastère des Augustines (Source)
-------
Do you like Liturgical Arts Journal's original content? You can help support LAJ in its mission and vision to promote beauty in Catholic worship either by:
You choose the amount! Your support makes all the difference.
