Or Nué

Embroidery with the Annunciation, or nué, The Netherlands ?, 15th century. Embroidery with the Annunciation, or nué, The Netherlands ?, 15th century. Copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 1990.330. 21 x 9.5 cm.

Or nué ('shaded gold') is a form of goldwork embroidery worked with a couching technique, whereby different coloured silk threads are stitched over the gold threads in order to form various designs. The or nué garments are slightly later in date than the equally prestigious opus anglicanum vestments.

The designs generally take the form of figures or particular (Biblical) scenes. The gold metal shines through the stitching. The colours that are used and their various hues provide a shaded and a slightly three-dimensional effect. Both the design itself and the background are filled with stitching.

Or nué was particularly popular in Northwestern Europe (France, Belgium, The Netherlands) during the late Middle Ages, and hence is sometimes called the Netherlandish technique (and in Dutch: lazuurwerk).

See also the altar frontal with the Life of the Virgin (Victoria and Albert Museum); the Antependium of Grimbergen (Brussels); the Annunciation (Metropolitan Museum of Art); the Baptism of Christ (Metropolitan Museum of Art); the Cope of the Order of the Golden Fleece (Vienna); the Empress and Porphyrius Visit St. Catherine in Prison (Metropolitan Museum of Art); Hermit Adrian Shows St. Catherine and Image of Christ and Baptizes her (Metropolitan Museum of Art); the Hood of a cope with the Seven Sacraments (Bern Historical Museum), St. Rumbold (Mechelen, Belgium), and the the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam). See also a hood of a cope now in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. There is also the series of Saint Martin embroideries, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New Tork.

Digital source (retrieved 25 February 2017).

WV

Last modified on Saturday, 25 February 2017 18:08