Textile Fragment from the Chasuble of San Valerius

Title: Textile Fragment from the Chasuble of San Valerius

Date: 13th century

Geography: Attributed to Spain

Medium: Silk, gilt animal substrate around a silk core; taqueté

Dimensions: Textile:
L. 6 in. (15.2 cm)
W. 5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm)
Mount:
H. 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm)
W. 9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm)
D. 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm)

Classification: Textiles

Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1946

Accession Number: 46.156.3

Textile Fragment: Vestments of Saint Valerius

This fragment and 46.156.4 and 46.156.10 belong to a once-complete set of liturgical vestments that consisted of a chasuble, two dalmatics, and a pluvial cope.[1] Fashioned in the thirteenth century at the Cathedral of Roda de Isabena (Huesca), the vestments have been attributed to the cult of Saint Valerius, bishop of Saragossa, Spain, from 290 until his death in 315 under the Roman emperor Diocletian. They were made to venerate the saint’s relics and were especially prominent in celebrations of his feast day.[2]

In the eleventh century Saint Valerius’s relics were translated to the Church of San Vicente in Roda, and some relics were later sent from there to other churches.[3] It is uncertain when the vestments themselves were brought to the cathedral of Lerida, where they remained until 1922. However, a document from the cathedral chapter dated 1498 states that the chapter intended to repair the garments.[4] As a result of alterations undertaken at various times from that date to 1851, none of the vestments, now housed in the Museu Textil i d’Indumentaria in Barcelona, is in its original state.[5] Many fragments cut from these vestments are preserved in various museums in the United States and Europe, and most of them have been published.

All three fragments shown here, with their patterns of small scale motifs, are characteristic of the thirteenth-century luxury silk textiles woven in al-Andalus. In the tapestry-woven fragment of the dalmatic (this fragment), the delicate geometric interlace is created by fine lines of white silk. The simple, minute secondary motifs—executed in brilliant blue, green, and pink threads and embedded in the interstices of the interlace against the shimmering gold brocade—recall the jewel-encrusted surfaces of gold-work. An epigraphic band in vivid red against the gold ground repeats an auspicious phrase.

The decoration of the second fragment of the dalmatic (46.156.4) consists of a square grid formed by an interlace of gold brocade on a light blue background. Each square of the grid contains a small rosette of gold interlace in the center and minute gold dots in the corners. Bright red silk outlines all the elements. The fragment of the chasuble (46.156.3) is decorated with alternating rows of eight-pointed stars and crosses. The stars contain a pair of addorsed rampant lions, while the crosses are filled with profuse foliate motifs. All the decorative elements are executed in gold brocade on a dark blue ground, with pink employed as an outlining device.

On the Iberian Peninsula, opulent silk textiles lavishly embellished with gold brocade were eagerly sought after by Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike as signs of wealth, power, and aesthetic sophistication. Fashioned into sumptuous dress for court ceremonials, they were also used in religious rituals, although sometimes they had originally been made for different purposes. Textiles produced in al-Andalus during the thirteenth century are known today largely from their discovery in the tombs of Christian kings, nobles, and churchmen, where they were found as mortuary vestments and as coffin linings.[6]

Olga Bush in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. For technical analysis of the weaving structures of the vestment fragments preserved in the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, see Borrego Diaz, Pilar. "Analisis tecnico del ligamento en los tejidos hispanoarabes." Bienes culturales, no. 5 [Tejidos hispanomusulmanes] (2005), pp. 102–5 and 111–15.

2. Partearroyo Lacaba, Cristina. "Estudio historico-artistico de los tejidos de al-Andalus y afines." Bienes culturales, no. 5 [Tejidos hispanomusulmanes] (2005), p. 58.

3. May 1957. p. 75.

4. While Partearroyo Lacaba suggests that the vestments were brought to Lerida in the fifteenth century for repair, Rosa M. Martin i Ros cites a document indicating that they might have been brought there not long after 1275. See Martin i Ros in Dodds 1992, p. 332, no. 95.

5. May 1957, p. 75, and Martin i Ros in Dodds 1992, pp. 332–33, no. 95. It should be noted that fragments from the chasuble were reused for the sleeves in one of the dalmatics. Another group of small fragments, all from the pluvial cope of Saint Valerius, is also extant in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum (acc. nos. 46.156.2 and 27.52).

6. In her discussion of the use of luxury textiles on the Iberian Peninsula during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Maria Judith Feliciano argued persuasively for the shared aesthetics of the Muslim and Christian elite. Instead of ascribing a textile to a ruling Muslim dynasty, she proposed that much can be gained from denoting it as "Andalusi," which would take into account a much broader view and reflect the actual practices of Iberian society. See Feliciano, Maria Judith. Muslim Shrouds for Christian Kings?: A Reassessment of Andalusi Textiles in Thirteenth-Century Castilian Life and Ritual." In: Robinson, Cynthia, and Leyla Rouhi, eds. Under the Influence: Questioning the Comparative in Medieval Castile. The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World, 22. Leiden, 2005, pp. 101–31.

[ Giorgio Sangiorgi (Italian), Rome, by 1920–46; to Loewi]; [ Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles, 1946; sold to MMA]

May, Florence Lewis. "Eighth to Fifteenth Century." In Silk Textiles of Spain. Peninsular series: Hispanic Notes & Monographs; Essays, Studies, and Brief Biographies Issued by the Hispanic Society of America. New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1957. p. 75.

Dodds, Jerrilynn D., Dr., Oleg Grabar, Antonio Vallejo Triano, Daniel S. Walker, Renata Holod, Cynthia Robinson, Juan Zozaya, Manuel Casamar Pérez, Christian Ewert, Guillermo Rossello Bordoy, Cristina Partearroyo, Sabiha Al Khemir, Dario Cabanelas Rodriguez, James Dickie, Jesus Bermudez Lopez, D. Fairchild Ruggles, and Juan Vernet. Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain, edited by Dr. Jerrilynn D. Dodds. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. no. 95, pp. 332–33, ill. pl. 95 (other vestment fragments of San Valero).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 46C, pp. 55, 78–80, ill. p. 79 (color).