Orphrey fragment

Against a ground of thick, rich red velvet, decorative acanthus scrolls executed in golden needlework top architectural niches housing the Christian saints Barbara– with her attribute, the tower in which she was imprisoned– and Lucy– holding her attribute, a dish bearing her eyes, plucked out in protest of a pagan marriage. Though originally finely executed by a talented needle worker with pricy raw materials, heavy-handed restoration (probably nineteenth-century) mars Saint Lucy's face.

This orphrey was repurposed about a hundred years after it was created to decorate the front and back of a fine damask chasuble garment, also in The Met's collection (16.32.321a). This priestly vestment must have been used and worn for centuries: both the damask and this orphrey strip show signs of wear and tear at exactly the same chest area. In the mid-twentieth century, this section of the orphrey was removed from the chasuble (although its matching reverse panel, depicting the Virgin and Infant Christ, John the Baptist, and Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, remains on the chasuble). It was temporarily attached to a late fifteenth-century chasuble fragment also in The Met's collection (56.166a,b), but is now a stand-alone object.