Monumental Ensemble Of Six Wool And Silk Embroidery - France, 16th Century

This imposing panel is made up of six paintings embroidered in wool and silk on an old red velvet. The latter present holy figures and apostles in full height adorned with their attributes. It is thus easy to distinguish among them Peter and his keys of the Vatican, or even Saint John the Baptist and the Lamb of God. All are inscribed in a three-dimensional space learning from the Italian Renaissance innovations and in particular the invention of the monofocal perspective implemented here by the artist thanks to the fleeting lines which outline the pavement and hollow out the space. According to a very widespread use since the 15th century, these rectangular panels once adorned a dalmatic, sewn from the neck to the deacon's feet as evidenced by a very beautiful dalmatic embroidered on brown velvet from the first half of the 16th century, today preserved at the National Renaissance Museum in Ecouen. (Inv. E.Cl. 22556)