The garment is made of a blue silk fabric decorated with intricate gold and silver thread embroidery. It was reputedly a present by the Patriarch of Constantinople to Pope Eugene IV (1431-1444). The back of the garment carries an illustration of the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, which in the East is particularly associated with the theosis ('divinisation'). The front of the dalmatic has a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ.
See also the TRC Needles entry on Marianne Alford's Needlework as Art, 1886.
Digital source of illustration (retrieved 22 June 2016).
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