French-style chasuble.The background material is painted with little flowers. The orphreys in red quilted silk have been added.
It is rare to find painted vestments and other liturgical pieces. Some examples were discovered between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. They are often found in small cloistered monasteries, because painting costs less than embroidery or quilted materials. This type of work seems to be found mostly in north-east Italy, Piedmont and Liguria.The few known chasubles carry either a big decoration of greenery with vibrant colours, or a seedbed of delicate flowers like this one.
Related works Saint-Gall Cathedral (Switzerland). The ensemble was given to the Abbots Gallus Alt and Josef von Rudolfi: mitre (1684), chasuble, (1685), antependium (1731) and biretta (1737). Chairamonti Collection (Savona, Italy). Chasuble and accessories given to Pius VII by the town of Benevento (1804). Several chasubles painted with little flowers, Diocese of Genoa Similar to a chasuble kept in a church near Genoa (Italy).
Bibliography
Berthod Bernard, « Panoplie sacrée du pontife, un ensemble paramentique aux armes de Pie VII », Pie VII face à Napoléon, la tiare dans les serres de l’Aigle, Rome, Paris, Fontainebleau, 1796-1814, Château de Fontainebleau, RMN, Paris. », p. 26-37. Poeschel Erwin, Die Kunsdenkmäler des Kantons St.Gallen,Die Stadt St. Gallen : Zweiter Teil das Stift,t. 3, Birkhäuserverlag, Bale, 1961, p. 275-279.
