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

3r'i
St. Peter's. Austrian (Salzburg),
about 1231. Silk with painted gold
patterns; mounts of silver-gilt
filigree set with coral beads,
height 85/8 inches, length of
lappets 185/8 inches. The Cloisters
Collection, 53.19.1
date from the early thirteenth through the early sixteenth centuries, are on
display. Probably the oldest and one of the finest pieces is a thirteenth-century
Austrian miter from the treasury of the Benedictine abbey church of St. Peter
in Salzburg (Figure 1). It is mentioned in the oldest surviving inventory of the
church, dating from 1462, and is referred to as one of "three old miters." The
material from which it is made is believed to date to the twelfth century, but
because the abbots of St. Peter's were granted the privilege to wear miters
only in 1231, it is generally dated on or around that year.
Another early vestment, the oldest of three examples in the Museum's collections
of the so-called opus anglicanum - famous for the high levels of
artistry it achieved - is an English alb apparel with a Crucifixion scene and
four saints within a cinquefoil arched arcade (Figure 2). In the spandrels of the
arches are six coats of arms that have been identified as those of Hastings,
the earl of Arundel, England, Castile-Leon, Clare, and de Vere. The presence
of the arms of Castile next to those of England could indicate a date prior to
the death of Eleanor of Castile, queen of Edward I, in 1290. Undoubtedly the
finest vestment in the Museum's collections, the second example of opus
anglicanum, is the Chichester-Constable chasuble, which has been dated between
1330 and 1350 (see the article that begins on page 291). The third is an
early sixteenth-century cope that has lost its orphreys but retains its remarkable
embroidery depicting the Assumption of the Virgin surrounded by a host of
seraphim on a red velvet field (Figure 3).
The orphreys of a Bohemian chasuble of the early fifteenth century (Figures
4, 5) are of particular interest for their stylistic similarities with a large
altarpiece painted in Bohemia around 1390 by the Master of Wittengau. The
full, rounded faces with broad foreheads tapering down to small chins,
exemplified by the Virgin in the Coronation scene, are characteristic of the
so-called Beautiful style prevalent in Bohemia at the time. This type of angel
is remarkably close to the Master of Wittengau and seems to have been an
invention of South Bohemia.
2. Alb apparel. English, 1280-1300.
Silver-gilt, silver, and silk thread on
silk, 7/2 x 291/2 inches. Gift of
J. Pierpont Morgan, 17.190.186
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin
VOLUME XXIX, NUMBER 7 MARCH 1971
Published monthly from October to June and quarterly from July to September. Copyright 1971
by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, New York, N. Y. 10028. Second
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Photographs, unless otherwise noted, by the Metropolitan Museum's Photograph Studio.