Exhibition Index
2021 Online Exhibition
Antependium
Ursuline, France
Second-half of 17th century
78 x 186 cms
Linen canvas thickly embroidered with white tubular glass beads, background embroidered with needle painting technique.
The decoration is designed around a medallion representing a lightly shrouded saint surrounded by gold glass-bead foliage in high relief from which sprays of roses in green and red wool peek out. The woman in the medallion could be the Virgin Mary in an expectant posture, known as the Annunciation, or Saint Angèle Merici, Founder of the Ursulines Specific
Bibliography:
Picaud Gérard, Foisselon Jean, Faste et exubérance pour les saints de la Visitation, Paris, 2008, p. 92.
Pontroué Pierre-Marie, Au fil du temps, l’art de la broderie chez les Ursulines au XVIIe siècle, Amiens, 1992
Sherrdubin Lois, Histoire des perles de la Préhistoire à nos jours. P., Nathan, 1988 Blumen, Fleurs, les motifs floraux au naturel dans les arts textiles du Moyen-âge au XIXe siècle, Abegg-Stifftung, Riggisberg, 1986
Antependium
The etymological meaning of antependium is that which is placed in front of. It is a decorative cloth covering either the four sides,or just the visible front, of the altar. This ornament is usually made of cloth in the liturgical colour of the day. This setting is not mandatory, other than for funerals and All Souls Day on the 2nd November, when it must be purple.The antependium of the altar of the Blessed Sacrament must be white. It may also have embroidery, pearls, be in leather, wood or precious metal. No rules govern its decoration. However, the Sacrée Congrégation des Rites (S.C.R. – Sacred Congregation of Rites) has forbidden the representation of the hearts of Jesus and Mary under a crown of thorns or pierced by a sword (n° 3492). In Lyon, during Lent, the antependium is cut out of rough canvas with a purple cross sewn onto it; for Laetare Sunday it is in green cloth, whilst the liturgical vestments are pink.
Embroidery using tubular beads appears in liturgical art at the beginning of the 17th century.It was carried out in France by cloistered nuns, mostly the Ursulines, the Visitandines, the Carmelites and probably others. This practice was continued in the 18th century by the Visitandines.
Bibliography:
Berthod Bernard, Favier Gaël, Dictionnaire des Arts liturgiques du Moyen-âge à nos jours, Châteauneuf sur Charente, 2015, p. 76-77
Hennezel H. d’, «Les parements d’autel »,La vie et les arts liturgiques, Paris, T. 3, 1916, p. 20-24.
Vassallo e Silva N., Frontais de Altar, Lisbon, Sào Roque Museum, 1994.
Relevant works:
Museum of the Visitation, Moulins: parament of the beatification of Saint François de Sales, Rennes, 1662; banner for the Holy Sacrament, mid-18th century.
Musée d’art sacré, Pont-Saint-Esprit
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, antependium of the previous Carmel
Hospital of Saint-Valéry sur Somme (Somme, France), antependium
Eglise d’Ault (Somme, France), processionnal banner
Carmel d’Abbeville (Somme, France), two antependia
Museum of Mours-Saint-Eusèbe (Drôme, France), chasuble
Church at Semons (Isère, France), Antependium
Gruérien Museum, Bulle (Switzerland), chasuble embroidered with sequins and beads and sequins.