43326
Opus Anglicanum: The Evelyn Thomas Database of Medieval English Embroidery
Christie No.: 70
United Kingdom, England, Greater London, London, Victoria and Albert Museum
1310 - 1320
Christ
Detail of Christ holding globe and cross. This panel was possibly once part of a cope, as is indicated by the blank triangular panel at the top (where the vestigial hood would have lain). This panel is perhaps the most impressive example of 'Opus anglicanum' to have survived because of the scale of the figure.
The incomplete inscription 'JOHANNIS: DE: THANETO' referes to John of Thanet (d. 1320-1330), a monk of Canterbury Cathedral and Abbot of Nattle Abbey. It has been suggested he commissioned the vestment.
Photo: ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of English Embroidery (1905), p. 67; pl. XX
Morris, M., "Opus Anglicanum, III. The Pienza Cope," Burlington Magazine, VII (1905), pp. 304-309; pl. II
Victoria and Albert Museum, Review of the Principal Acquisitions (1921), p. 67
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Exhibition of English Mediaeval Art (1930), p. viii; pl. 32
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 100 Masterpieces (1930), pl. 40
Rickert, M., Painting in Britain: The Middle Ages (1954), p. 153; pl. 135
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Opus Anglicanum (1963), pp. 22-23 (no. 38); pl. 4
Schuette, M., & Müller-Christensen, S., Das Stickereiwerk (1963), pp. 16, 31; fig. 100
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Medieval Treasury (1986), pp. 193-193; illus.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum's Textile Collection: Embroidery in Britain, 1200-1750 (1993), p. 21 (no. 7); pl. 7
Synge, L., Art of embroidery: history of style and technique (2001), p. 49; fig. 44
Johnstone, P., High Fashion in the Church (2002), pp. 39-40; fig. 36