Orphrey Fragment with Man of Sorrows
Italian
Description
Subject Matter:
This woven silk textile fragment was part of an orphrey, a decorative textile that adorns the robes worn by a priest celebrating the Mass in Christian liturgy. The two-toned weave represents Christ as the Man of Sorrows. This pictorial tradition was very popular in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Christ appears alone, surrounded by the implements used against him during his death. He stands in front of a cross and whips hang on either side of the cross arms. All of this imagery coincided with the liturgical ritual of the Mass, during which Christians remembered Christ's death and watched priests consume Christ's body, believed to be present in a symbolic wine and wafer of bread.
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