The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 7 (March, 1971)

9. Detail of the Annunciation from the Merode triptych,
by Robert Campin (died 1444), Flemish. Oil on wood,
25 3/16 x 24 7/8 inches overall. The Cloisters Collection
ments were further enriched with broad bands of
applied embroidery called orphreys. Even the simpler
vestments such as the amice and the alb received
patches of embroidery known in the case of
the alb as apparels (Figure 9). It was not uncommon
from the fourteenth century onward to find vestments
made in sets, known as chapels, in which not
only the outer garments but also the altar coverings
would be woven and embroidered alike. The remains
of such a set in the Museum's collection are
discussed in the article by Bonnie Young that starts
on page 291.
Of those vestments whose form altered in the
later Middle Ages, perhaps the miter showed the
most radical changes (Figure 10). The miter had
been newly created and added to the vestiture in
the eleventh century as a means of providing a
suitably impressive head covering for the bishop.
From the seventh century, the pope had worn a tall
pointed hat (Figure 11) that in the process of evolution
became the triple tiara of the sixteenth century
(Figure 12). The bishop's miter began, as contemporary
miniatures show, as a round pointed cap with
two streamers called lappets hanging from behind,
used originally as a means of securing it to the head.
Contemporary with this first type was a spherical or
bowl-shaped miter that continued in use into the
twelfth century. Two other types seem to have made
their appearance in the twelfth century. The first
was a cap with slightly puffed side pieces protruding
from a band passing across the head from front
to back (this type evolved into a two-horned shape).
The second and most common type consisted of two
shallow pointed triangles joined at the sides and
ornamented front and back with vertical strips of
embroidery. It was this latter type that continued to
develop by becoming more exaggerated in height
up to the fifteenth century. At this time the points of
the miter were bent toward the center and the sides
were flared outward. This latter type has continued
in use to the present.
Between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, the
chasuble underwent a similar development (Figure
13). Originally a circular garment, it at first assumed
a pointed appearance slightly longer in back than in
front and then became increasingly shorter over the
arms. By the end of the fifteenth century, the old
circular shape had vanished and in its place was a
garment consisting of two oval aprons hanging from