1349.
Web for Orphreys; ground, cloth of gold pricked with crimson; design, the names—“Jhesus,” “Maria,” done in blue silk, between two trees, one bearing heads of crimson fruit, the other lilies, parti-coloured white with crimson; and the green sward, from which both spring, covered with full-blown daisies in one instance, with unexpanded daisies in the other. German, late 15th century. 17½ inches by 4½ inches.
Like several other specimens in the collection, and most probably woven to be the orphreys sewed, before and behind, in a horizontal stripe, upon the dalmatics and tunicles for high mass. The student of symbolism will not fail to see in the tree to the right hand the mystic vine, bearing bunches of crimson grapes; while, to the left, the tree covered with parti-coloured lilies—white for purity, red for a bleeding-heart—is referrible to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose heart, as she stood at the foot of the cross, underwent all the pains of martyrdom foretold her by Simeon when he said,—“And thine own soul a sword shall pierce,” Luke ii. 35.