Religious representations

Religious representations

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam holds a fragment of an orphrey (Dutch: aurifries). It measures 46.5 x 21.5 cm and it is richly embroidered in the or nué technique that was very popular in The Netherlands and beyond in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The embroidery is worked with silk and gold thread. The medallion in the centre shows the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

A representation of Christ with the Crown of Thorns, and worked in punch needle work, localled called igolochky, and measuring 60 x 47 cm, is housed in the collection of the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands (acc. no. TRC 2015.0554). It is made out of cotton and dates to the 1980's.

A panel (20.3 x 15.9 cm) with embroidery carried out in the or nué tradition, popular in the Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It dates to the early fifteenth century and represents the medieval story of Saint Martin and the Repentant Horsemen. The embroidery is worked in silk and silver thread on a linen background.

The collection of the British Museum, London, includes an embroidery from Dunhuang, Gansu province, China, that depicts 'Sakyamuni preaching on the Vulture Peak' and dates to about the eighth century AD. The panel measures 241 x 159 cm. It is worked in split stitch being passed through the plain silk weave and the hemp backing. 

The Basilica of Our Lady in Hanswijk, Mechelen, Belgium, houses an embroidered representation of St. Rumbold. The embroidery is worked in the or nué technique that was popular in the Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The embroidery is attached to a chasuble.

Susannah and the Elders is the name given to an embroidered picture from England dating to around 1660 that is now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It measures 46 x 56 cm. It is made of a silk satin background material embroidered with coloured silk threads and metal purl. The oval frame consists of parchment wrapped in silk.

The Tenjukoku Shucho ('Embroidery of the Long Life in Heaven') is a set of original fragments plus those of two large draperies, that themselves are thirteenth century reproductions of the original embroidered silk that had the representation of the Buddhist paradise. They are the oldest extant pieces of embroidery known from Japan, apart from some excavated examples.

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