This small round panel worked in the famed English medieval embroidery known as opus anglicanum (Latin for English work) is a rare survivor from such an early date.
It may originally have been attached to a cope, an ecclesiastical garment like a cape which is generally worn on ceremonial occasions. It came to the Museum in 1864 from the collection of Canon Franz Bock. Panels applied to copes, occasionally described as circular, are mentioned in various inventories including one of 1245 from St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Physical description
Roundel with the figure of an unidentified King holding a sword, possibly an ornamental panel (tasselus) from a cope. Plain woven linen, originally covered with woven silk twill in purple, now dark brown, embroidered with silk in blue, cream and brownish black and silver-gilt threads in underside couching and stem stitch.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (made)
Date
ca. 1220-1250 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Linen plain weave and silk twill, embroidered silk and couched silver-gilt
Dimensions
Height: 17.2 cm, Diameter: 17.8 cm
Object history note
This was probably part of a cope and was originally worked on a purple ground which has now disappeared, only faint traces at edge of embroidery. Said to have come from the Cathedral of Halberstadt, Germany.
Note the miniver lined mantle the figure is wearing (easily recognised by the white blocks with edging of grey, which was made up from the bellies of the Baltic squirrels taken in winter) which was particularly fashionable in the 13th and 14th centuries. The figure of the King also has his hair slightly wavy as was fashionable at the time, and can be seen in contemporary royal effigies.
Historical context note
Panels (tassellus) were occasionally said to be circular, mentioned in the 1245 inventory of St. Paul's cathedral and in many other inventories. The figure resembles those on the stole of St. Edmund Rich in La Cathédrale de Sens, and the footgear of Bishop Walter de Cantelupe in the British Museum.
Descriptive line
Roundel with a king, linen originally covered with silk twill, embroidered with silk and silver-gilt threads, England, ca. 1220-50
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Baker, Malcolm and Richardson, Brenda, eds. A Grand Design : The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 1997. 431 p., ill. ISBN 1851773088.
Originally applied to an ecclesiastical vestment, this roundel with the figure of an unidentified king is an example of a type of embroidery that was already identified as distinctively English in the Middle Ages through its description in inventories such as opus anglicanum (English work). Although its English origins were never in doubt, the roundel was among a large number of medieval textile fragments acquired in the 1860s, not as examples of English material, but as part of the wider context of European medieval art. The tiny fragment was acquired from Dr. Franz Bock who, though a canon of Aachen cathedral, was very active as a dealer. Bock's scholarly investigation of medieval cathedral treasuries in Germany and Austria resulted in substantial publication, including a history of textiles, but it also seems to have involved the removal of numerous sample specimens (such as this) snipped from complete vestments. The collection of textiles assembled in this way was sold by Bock (who was on very good terms with J. C. Robinson) to South Kensington; in addition, the applied arts museums in Vienna and Berlin, as well as South Kensington, continued to buy other works from him. By the 1920s, however, such textiles were being seen in terms of their national significance, a position reinforced by the publication in 1938 of A. G. I. Christie's monumental study, English Medieval Embroidery. This shift was also reflected in publications on other aspects of medieval art by scholars associated with the Museum, including Mary Chamot's English Medieval Enamels (1930) and Margaret Longhurst's English Ivories (1926), with its most notable manifestation the major exhibition, "English Medieval Art," mounted by the Museum in 1930.
Lit. King, 1963, p. 18; Jopek, forthcoming
LINDA WOOLEY
Opus Anglicanum: English Medieval Embroidery: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 26 September to 24 November 1963 (London: The Arts Council, 1963), cat. 24.
Exhibition History
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 12/10/1999-16/01/2000)
Materials
Silk; Linen; Silk thread; Silver-gilt thread
Techniques
Embroidery; Plain weave; Couching; Twill
Subjects depicted
King; Swords; Robes; Crowns; Monarchs; King
Categories
Royalty; Textiles; Religion; Christianity; Embroidery
Collection code
T&F
