79.
Cope, crimson velvet, with hood and orphrey embroidered, &c. Florentine, late 15th century. 9 feet 5½ inches by 4 feet 6 inches.
This fine cope is of the same set a part of which was the beautiful chasuble [No. 78], and, while made of precisely the same costly materials, is wrought with equal care and art. Its large fine hood is figured with the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the infant Church, represented by the Blessed Virgin Mary amid the Apostles, and not merely this subject itself, but the crimson colour of the velvet would lead us to think that the whole set of vestments was intended for use on Witsunday. On the orphrey, on the right hand, the first saint is St. John the Baptist, with the Holy Lamb; then, Pope St. Gregory the Great; afterwards, an archbishop, may be St. Antoninus; after him a layman-saint with an arrow, and seemingly clad in armour, perhaps St. Sebastian; on the left side, St. George with banner and shield; under him St. Jerome, below whom, a bishop; and lowermost of all St. Onuphrius, hermit, holding in one hand a cross on a staff, in the other a walkingstick, and quite naked, saving his loins, round which he wears a wreath of leaves. All these subjects are admirably treated, and the heads done with the delicacy and truth of miniatures.