7674.
Missal Cushion; ground, red silk; pattern, two angels standing face to face and holding between them a cross, all in gold, excepting the angels' faces and hands, which are white; there are four tassels, one at each corner, crimson and gold. Florentine, early 15th century. 1 foot 3 inches by 1 foot.
The covering for this cushion is made of orphrey web, the gold of
which is very much faded; and, like other specimens from the same
looms, shows the nudes of the figures in a pinkish white. The use of
such cushions for upholding the missal upon the altar is even now kept
up in some places. According to the rubric of the Roman Missal,
wherein, at the beginning among the "rubricæ generales," cap. xx. it
is directed that there should be "in cornu epistolæ (altaris) cussinus
supponendus missali."
7788.
Chasuble, in crimson velvet, with orphreys embroidered in gold and coloured silks. Florentine, 15th century. 4 feet long by 2 feet 5 inches broad.
This garment has been much cut down, and so worn that, in parts,
its rich and curious orphreys are so damaged as to be unintelligible.
Over the breast and on the front orphrey is embroidered the Crucifixion,
but after a somewhat unusual manner, inasmuch as, besides our Lord on
the Cross, with His mother and St. John the Evangelist standing by;
two other saints are introduced, St. Jerome on one side, St. Lucy on
the other, kneeling on the ground at the foot of the Cross, possibly the
patrons, one of the lady, the other of the gentleman, at whose cost this
vestment was wrought. Under this is St. Christina defending Christianity
against the heathens; her arraignment, for her belief, before one of
Dioclesian's officials; her body bound naked, and scourged at a pillar.
On the back orphrey, the same martyr on her knees by the side of
another governor, her own pagan father, and praying that the idol, held
to her for worship by him, may be broken; the saint maintaining her
faith to those who came to argue with her before the window of the prison,
wherein she is shut up naked in a cauldron, with flames under it, and
