Apparels for a Requiem Mass
Skulls bedecked with green worm-like ribbons make for incongruous centerpieces in colorful cartouches. These needlework apparels – rectangular pictorial panels to ornament priestly vestments – are part of a long tradition of skeletal representations depicted on clothing for the Catholic Requiem (funerary) Mass. Although their designs read as bold and powerful images from a distance, up close the embroidery is rough and rudimentary.
At some point, probably in the early nineteenth century, the embroidered panels were applied to a thin black velvet support, cut and retailored to create the current chasuble-like shape, with the apparels incongruously set on their sides, edge-to-edge up the front and rear of the garment. Thus repurposed, the vestment was apparently used for a century, displaying multiple signs of wear-and-tear, before it entered the collector of Parisian decorator and designer, Georges Hoentschel.
At some point, probably in the early nineteenth century, the embroidered panels were applied to a thin black velvet support, cut and retailored to create the current chasuble-like shape, with the apparels incongruously set on their sides, edge-to-edge up the front and rear of the garment. Thus repurposed, the vestment was apparently used for a century, displaying multiple signs of wear-and-tear, before it entered the collector of Parisian decorator and designer, Georges Hoentschel.
Artwork Details
- Title: Apparels for a Requiem Mass
- Date: ca. 1700 (embroidery) patched and reassembled to current shape in the 19th century
- Culture: Spanish
- Medium: Silk and metal thread
- Dimensions: L. (as assembled) 52 1/2 inches (133.4 cm)
- Classifications: Textiles-Velvets, Textiles-Embroidered, Textiles-Ecclesiastical
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1916
- Object Number: 16.32.319
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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