The Linköping Mitre: Ecclesiastical Textiles and Episcopal Identity (original) (raw)

C. Borgioli, Wearing the Sacred: Images, Space, Identity in Liturgical Vestments (13th to 16th Centuries)

Wearing Images / Imágenes portadas, by Diane Bodart. ESPACIO, TIEMPO Y FORMA SERIE VII HISTORIA DEL ARTE REVISTA DE LA FACULTAD DE GEOGRAFÍA E HISTORIA , UNED, Madrid, 2018

The act of wearing sacred garments to celebrate religious rites is an important element of the liturgy. In the early centuries of Christianity, liturgical attire was not meant to be different from secular wear, and it was only in the eleventh century that the custom spread to Rome from northern Europe of wearing vestments made of precious materials for the clergy. From this moment on, precious materials and images would be more or less a constant in Western liturgical attire. This essay discusses – starting from some examples still extant or known from documents – the role of figural images on sacred vestments in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, attempting to explicate the relation between the image and the space where it appears, the body, liturgical gestures, religious and political message, and function in terms of identity, as well as to show the aspects of continuity and discontinuity in the role of images worn in the liturgical sphere from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

Wearing the Sacred: Images, Space, Identity in Liturgical Vestments (13th to 16th Centuries) = Vistiendo lo sagrado. Imágenes, espacio e identidad de las vestiduras litúrgicas (Siglos XIII al XVI)

Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte

The act of wearing sacred garments to celebrate religious rites is an important element of the liturgy. In the early centuries of Christianity, liturgical attire was not meant to be different from secular wear, and it was only in the eleventh century that the custom spread to Rome from northern Europe of wearing vestments made of precious materials for the clergy. From this moment on, precious materials and images would be more or less a constant in Western liturgical attire. This essay discusses-starting from some examples still extant or known from documents-the role of figural images on sacred vestments in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, attempting to explicate the relation between the image and the space where it appears, the body, liturgical gestures, religious and political message, and function in terms of identity, as well as to show the aspects of continuity and discontinuity in the role of images worn in the liturgical sphere from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

Clothing as communication? Vestments and views of the papacy c.1300

Journal of Medieval History

This essay argues that Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) used clothing in a highly intentional and performative manner to communicate his status and authority. His audience, however, was quite limitedessentially, the small community of those who aspired to hold or influence the power of the Holy Seeand the messages conveyed were not particularly complex. Attempting a reception history of papal attire c.1300, the essay surveys remarks regarding clothing in late thirteenth-and early fourteenth-century chronicles and analyses in depth the evidence of two sources: ambassadorial reports to King James II of Aragon (1291-1327) and the De electione et coronatione sanctissimi patris domini Bonifatii pape octavi of Cardinal Jacopo Caetani Stefaneschi (c.1270-1343). A suggestive finding is that performativity, or the highly theatrical use of garments, appears to have been used by Boniface VIII to foster dissemination of simple communications across great distances.

Lustrous silk and dark wool: materiality, colour and the refashioning of St. Augustine in the medieval imagination

Historical Research

Male bodies dressed in brilliant silk clothing conveyed messages of power in late medieval Italy. Previous scholars examined how these glamorous bodies reflected contemporary ideals of gentility and whiteness in a courtly context. This article shifts the attention from secular to religious contexts through examining the fictive materiality of the attire of St. Augustine. Silk and wool were two driving forces of the pre-industrial economy. Yet they are rarely considered together, and the discussion has focussed on production. Much less thought has been put into the social implications. By pulling together the threads of silk and wool, this article illuminates how St. Augustine's dual silk-woollen attire transformed his body in the medieval imaginary and became a powerful visual tool to communicate messages of leadership, legitimacy and kinship.

Reflections on gender and status distinctions: an analysis of the liturgical textiles recorded in mid-sixteenth century London

Gender Amp History, 2003

London in the mid sixteenth century was a city in religious flux. The reformation of the English church, which had begun under Henry VIII (1509-47) with the king pronouncing himself head of the church, reviewing the liturgy and dissolving the monasteries, took a more radical doctrinal turn under Edward VI (1547-53). Transubstantiation was denied, with 'justification by faith' promoted in its stead. The reintroduction of the Book of Common Prayer on 1 November 1552 was significant in this process, and its impact was visual as well as liturgical. John Stow noted in his Annales of England that on this day Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, wore 'his rochet only, without cope or vestment'. 1 This rejection of liturgical textiles went beyond vestments and included the textile furnishings for the church and linen for the priest and the altars. These textiles belonged to the parish churches and they played a significant and symbolic part in the parishioners' communal and individual religious lives until 1552. After a brief resurgence under Mary, and as a consequence of royal religious policy, the role of textiles in the liturgy was radically reduced.

The Fabric of Devotion: A New Approach to Studying Textiles from Late Medieval Nunneries

Konsthistorisk tidskrift, 2021

In her dissertation, she studies textile as a complex and versatile medium with a specific focus on how it was used and perceived during the Middle Ages. She has recently published an article on Medievalism and the "Game of Thrones Tapestry" in the Danish journal for History of Ideas, Slagmark, and has conducted a research stay at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, which was funded by the Augustinus Foundation. 2 The fabric of devotion: A new approach to studying textiles from late medieval nunneries Recent scholarship on the nunneries of the Late Middle Ages has demonstrated that within these houses, textile work served as important devotional tools which might accompany prayer, meditation and worship. This shows that the production of woven and embroidered textiles in nunneries does not easily compare to any modern-day notion of artistic practice, and it is argued that art historians should take this into consideration when approaching these textiles. This article proposes a new way of analysing textiles from nunneries, based on the premise that within nunneries, textile production was a complex and dynamic devotional practice. The article analyses a series of textiles from Lüne Abbey in northern Germany, the so-called Bartholomäuslaken (1492), Katharinenlaken (1500) and Georgslaken (1500), to illustrate the claim that we should consider textiles from religious houses as material indexes of the devotional practice of nuns.

2024, “Casula vero significare debet opera”: Metaphors, allegories, and the mystical significance of liturgical garments in the accounts of the Fathers of the Church

The Ritual Power of Clothing - ICOM Prague Conference 2022 Proceedings, ISBN: 978-2-491997-72-4, 2024

Liturgical clothing is always a reflection of historical, economic, and political circumstances and the construction of an imaginary that corresponds to them. Explaining the choices made is not always easy: they are often the result of a process of change in thinking that takes place for several reasons. In the Catholic world, the explicit educational objective of promoting the Word coexisted with the need for recognition and the intention of transmitting the hierarchical expression in a language understood by all. The detailed explanations of the forms and characteristics— sometimes apparently incongruent—of liturgical garments made throughout centuries by medieval thinkers tell us how they are not only an expression of implicit functionality but also of meaningful planning. The number and quality of the Fathers who devoted themselves to this subject give us a clear indication of how the garment was one of the most thoughtful elements of reflection.