A Follow-up to my Thoughts on Opus Anglicanum.

When I was studying painting, I became particularly interested in one website, and the detail available on it. The website was based in Belgium, and named 'Closer to Van Eyck'. It can be viewed here. It allowed you to zoom in on any frame of the Ghent Altarpiece, as painted by Jan van Eyck, and look at the utterly phenomenal details he included. Recently, I heard about another website whilst following Wikipedia image tags - I noticed that many of the best and largest images available were from a site called the 'Google Art Project'. I wondered why I hadn't visited it before. I soon discovered the way that it let you view the insides of museums, read about the objects contained, and, most interestingly, to zoom in on those objects. I found the van Eyck Altarpiece of embroidery on that website - it's part of the permanent collection of the Kaiserliche Schatzkammer, Wien (otherwise known as the Imperial Treasury of Vienna). This set of masterpieces, known as the Vestments of the Order of the Golden Fleece, are almost certainly Belgian in origin, most likely from Brussels. Their design has been attributed to the early 15th century Flemish artist, Robert Campin. Made on linen from a combination of beautiful goldwork (mostly Or Nué), and incredibly fine burden-stitched details, these pieces are almost certainly the finest artworks in embroidery to come out of the 15th century. I was so glad to find them, and to see how they were made in enough detail to (perhaps one day) work out how to replicate their techniques on the same scale. Looking at them, I was so 'blown away', that I felt I had to write a little about them. But first, a short gallery and explanation. There are eight pieces still in existence that form the set - I am uncertain as to whether this is the original number of vestments, as they are numbered thus: two 'altar frontals', two dalmatics, one chasuble, and three copes. This seems odd - perhaps there were originally three dalmatics and chasubles, though this is just speculation. Made between 1425 and 1440 for the court of Burgundy, they are often referred to as the 'most costly and finest' set of Medieval embroideries ever made. But I'm getting away from my point. Here are some images. Bear in mind that the copes are about 3.3 x 1.6m across. This first cope is the Marienmantel, aka the cope (or cape) of Mary. This cope follows the theme of female saints, and uses a lot of blue in its palette, surely in allusion to the colour most associated with Mary. She is seen seated in the very centre of the pattern.

A detail from the Marienmantel: the angels that surround her.

 
A second detail: the shading on her robe.

The other copes - one with the figure of Christ, and themed around his representative colour, red, and one with the figure of John the Baptist, with themes of natural colours - green and brown - are equally sumptuous (both are accessible on the same site as the Marienmantel above). Here is a detail of the angels from the Cope of Christ:

These details are about as close as you can zoom on these particular objects, but the chasuble, being a far smaller object, is much more closely photographed. More about that in the sequel to this post. Looking at these objects, I was reminded of something I wrote about before - the BBC Four documentary on English embroidery of the 14th century. I watched it again recently, and was struck by his claim that embroidery had reached a high point in the 'Opus Anglicanum' of that pre-plague age, and that (I should stress, he was talking about the craft, not just the craft within the borders of England) it would never be able to reach such heights again. Surely these vestments must dispute that? Just to finish this post, here is another picture I've put together from the main images of the three copes. They are seen here exactly as they appear on the copes - their postures and even the colours of their clothing a tribute to their Belgian Tradition - and so similar to the van Eyck they are pictured with.