The covering for this cushion is made of orphrey web, the gold of which is very much faded; and, like other specimens from the same looms, shows the nudes of the figures in a pinkish white. The use of such cushions for upholding the missal upon the altar is even now kept up in some places. According to the rubric of the Roman Missal, wherein, at the beginning among the “rubricæ generales,” cap. xx. it is directed that there should be “in cornu epistolæ (altaris) cussinus supponendus missali.”
7788.
Chasuble, in crimson velvet, with orphreys embroidered in gold and coloured silks. Florentine, 15th century. 4 feet long by 2 feet 5 inches broad.
This garment has been much cut down, and so worn that, in parts, its rich and curious orphreys are so damaged as to be unintelligible. Over the breast and on the front orphrey is embroidered the Crucifixion, but after a somewhat unusual manner, inasmuch as, besides our Lord on the Cross, with His mother and St. John the Evangelist standing by; two other saints are introduced, St. Jerome on one side, St. Lucy on the other, kneeling on the ground at the foot of the Cross, possibly the patrons, one of the lady, the other of the gentleman, at whose cost this vestment was wrought. Under this is St. Christina defending Christianity against the heathens; her arraignment, for her belief, before one of Dioclesian’s officials; her body bound naked, and scourged at a pillar. On the back orphrey, the same martyr on her knees by the side of another governor, her own pagan father, and praying that the idol, held to her for worship by him, may be broken; the saint maintaining her faith to those who came to argue with her before the window of the prison, wherein she is shut up naked in a cauldron, with flames under it, and praying with one of the men who are feeding the fire with bundles of wood, on his knees, as if converted by her words; then, the saint standing at a table, around which are three men; and below all, a piece so worn and cut, as to be unintelligible. Upon the last square but one is a shield argent, a bend azure, charged with a crescent or, two stars or, and another crescent or, probably the blazon of the Pandolfini family, to whose domestic chapel at Florence this vestment is said to have belonged.
7789, 7790.
Dalmatic, and Tunicle, in crimson velvet, with apparels of woven stuff in gold and crimson silk, figured with cherubic heads. Florentine, 15th century.
The velvet is of a rich pile, and the tone of colour warm. The orphreys, or rather apparels, are all of the same texture, woven of a red ground, and figured in gold with cherubic heads, having white faces; the lace also is red, and gold; but in both the gold is quite faded. The sleeves are somewhat short, but the garment itself is full and majestic. Doubtless the dalmatic and tunicle formed a part of a full set of vestments, to which the fine and curiously embroidered chasuble, [No. 7788], belonged; and their apparels, or square orphreys, above and below, before and behind, are in design and execution alike to several others from the looms of Florence, which we have found among various other remains of liturgic garments in this collection.