Gilt leather altar frontal, stamped with scroll pattern, gilt, silvered and painted enclosing a medallion of the Virgin and Child, with a coat of arms underneath it, and bunches of flowers on either side, Italy, ca. 1700.

The altar frontal consists of individual parts, skived and pasted together. The fond is partly gilt and partly painted with a translucent red colour. In the middle is a medallion with the Virgin and child, standing on a cloud with a landscape behind her. In her left hand is an instrument with two robes and two 'bags'. Above her a tester in silver with drapery, also in silver, with blue lines all around, and below her a white ribbon which might be of a later date. On either side of the medallion is a bunch of flowers, painted in naturalistic colours (combinations of blue, red and white). Similar flowers are depicted on the four sides. Below the medallion is the coat of arms of the Chigi-family of Siena and Rome: 6 bee-hives, above these a six-pointed star and below the two crossed axes. In the four corners are a wavy pattern with scrollwork in the so-characteristic early 18th century forms. All the ornaments and the scrollwork (not the medallion or the bunches of flowers) have been decorated with small punches in eight different forms ('feathered compass', diagonal cable, block with cables, plain lines, squares with a centre, double circle with knots, double circle with rays, feather).

As their name would suggest, altar frontals are pieces of leather or rich textiles, used to decorate the fronts of altars, and swapped around for different religious festivals. This item almost certainly formed part of a set with another surviving frontal with the same coat of arms, now in a private collection in England. This example is decorated to imitate richly embroidered Italian frontals of about 1700, and seems to be made from one hide, although in fact it is assembled from different pieces of leather in such a way as to conceal the joints. The coat of arms is that of the Chigi family, based in Siena and Rome, and bankers to the Popes. The exact provenance of this piece remains unknown, but it would originally have come from a private chapel either on one of their properties or in a church connected with their family.

A second altar-frontal from the same series, with an identical lay-out and St.Ambrose (?) instead of the Virgin, mounted as a table-top, in the Property of Mrs. Detmar Blow until 1947 at Dodington Park, property of Sir Delvos Brighton, since then Beanput Castle, Iverness (Inf. supplied by James York, June 1995). This altar-frontal has been restored by the Leather Conservation Centre, Northampton, August 1995. Similar, but not identical are the altar-frontals in Palacio de Viana, Cordoba (Sp.), inventory number 3; Museo de la Piel, Igualada (Sp.), inventory number 336; Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach am Main (Germ.), inventory number 5718; Kunstgewerbemuseum, Dresden (Germ.), inventory number 14325; Diozesan Museum, Klagenfurt (Austria), inventory number unknown.

This altar frontal has been analysed as part of the gilt leather cataloguing project in 1996. Eloy Koldeweij, October 1996

See also: A Technical investigation into the methods and materials used for gilt leather manufacture from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum (unpublished report, c.1996, held by the FTF Dept.), item 1
Report prepared by Christopher Calnan, Adviser on Conservation of Organic Materials at the National Trust, London.
Examination of decorative surface carried out by Catherine Hassell, University College, London
Examination of vegetable tannins carried out by Jan Wouters, KIK, Brussels.

Italian altar frontals of this period found in France are discussed in This style of painting on leather in Chinoiseries style seems to have been a particularity of London makers and is discussed in Jean-Pierre Fournet, Cuirs Dorées, "Cuirs de Courdoue", un art Européen (Château de Saint-Remy-en-l'Eau: 2019), pp. 288 foll.

As their name suggests, altar frontals are hangings of leather or rich textiles, used to decorate the fronts of altars. Different altar frontals may be used at different times of the liturgical year, to follow the pattern of liturgical colours and emblems for times of festival or penitence. This frontal almost certainly formed part of a set with another surviving frontal that bears the same coat of arms and is now in a private collection in England. This example is decorated to imitate richly embroidered Italian frontals of about 1700. It appears to have been made from one hide, although, in fact, it was assembled from different pieces of leather in such a way as as to conceal the joints. The coat of arms is that of the Chigi family, who were based in Siena and Rome, and were bankers to the popes. The exact provenance of this piece remains unknown, but it would have originally come from a private chapel at one of their properties or from a church connected with their family.

5901-1859