Jose Ignacio Catalan, Art historian, Sub-directorate of the Valencian Institute of Conservation, Restoration in Research (IVCR+i)
INTRODUCTION
Despite the importance of the textile liturgical heritage, this suffers from few studies of the workshops and manufactures that existed in our territory. The fabrics under the generic denomination of "sumptuary arts" or "decorative arts" have formed part of the historical artistic heritage of our municipalities, but curiously they have been scarcely valued and, so, studied.
Textile art has been an excellent bearer of a wide repertoire of plastic manifestations., fruit of multiple disciplines, for example, painting or jewelry. Its multiple artistic variants have had great importance in the social context, political and cultural to the present day, Proof of this is this set of liturgical clothing dedicated to celebrating the festival of San Jorge de Banyeres de Mariola, taking into account its symbolic significance..
Indeed, This set of clothing is made up of: a guitar-shaped chasuble, a stole, a chalice cover and a pall, and it is due to the workshop of liturgical ornaments of the Casa Llanas in Valencia. All the pieces have as common elements a red silk taffeta, as base fabric, and a golden cord that, as a decorative braid, it forms intertwined scrolls, and goes around the entire perimeter of the pieces and, also, in the chasuble, delimits the scapular in the form of a cross, as a decorative element.
The chasuble presents an embroidered decoration with two types of embroidery: one enhanced, that here has trilobed forms, at the beginning and end of the scapular, and curves, formed by metallic threads that cover a piece of cardboard; and another past, made up of metallic and silk threads of different shades, that are reproducing plant motifs, tendrils, flowers and neo-rococo trellises, that give the whole a great elegance and showiness. On the back of the chasuble, at the intersection of the arms of the cross that forms the scapular, we find a cartouche of trimmed leather and leaves embroidered with colored silk threads, that frames a scene with the representation of Saint George and the dragon. The saint appears as a young knight, mounted on a spirited white steed, in corvette, armed and dressed in a Roman garment, and with a red cross on his chest and with a cape, equally red, with a multitude of folds billowing in the wind in strong draping, who wields his whip over the jaws of a winged dragon, already knocked down on the ground. Behind him, You can see the princess tied to a tree. This scene is made using the "needle painting" technique with which plastic effects similar to pictorial art are achieved., but made with the technique of embroidery. The silk threads used for embroidery correspond to the type of flower silk or fine jewel silk, made with hardly any twisting of the fiber, which allows qualities that were required in the contracts when it was stipulated that it be embroidered in "fine and good quality silk".
The stole is rectangular in shape with the ends gradually widening to form trapezoids that are finished off with golden fringes.. In the middle, a twisted silk cord of gold and red thread topped by a tassel. In the center of the trapezoidal piece and in the middle of the stole, a fleur-de-lis cross enhanced and radiant with metallic threads.. The same type of cross is found in the chalice cover, which has a quadrangular shape, whose function is to cover the chalice and paten, and in the pall, which is also square and its function is to keep the sacred forms, and that also presents as an ornament some plumes in the four corners. The finials of the liturgical ornaments were made of silk or precious metals., thus contributing to the ornamentation of the pieces. The most common were the fringes and braids, as we can see in this set.
PHOTOGRAPHY 1
Front of the chasuble
PHOTOGRAPHY 2
Back of the chasuble
ICONOGRAPHIC APPROXIMACION
The liturgical ornaments through symbolic colors and their embroidered iconographic motifs reinforce the symbolic charge of the mass, giving the celebration a sacred nature, whose ultimate objective is to transmit to the faithful knowledge of the doctrine of the Christian faith in a visual way.
Saint George is a saint revered throughout Christendom., although the authenticity of his story has been questioned on several occasions. The scene of the saint fighting the dragon is the most frequent among his representations.. The subject was introduced into his biography in the 11th century.. This beardless young man, roman legion officer, native of cappadocia, on a certain occasion he came to a city called Silca , in the province of Libya. Near the town there was a lake in which a dragon lived that had the people of the region intimidated.. The inhabitants of Silca threw two sheep into the lake every day for the dragon to eat and leave them alone., because if he lacked food he would go in search of it up to the very wall. After a while, the inhabitants of Silca were left with almost no sheep and agreed to throw them into the water every day, for food of the beast, one sheep and one person, and that the designation of this be made daily by lottery, without excluding anyone. One day, when doing the victim draw, the lot fell on the king's only daughter. I am greatly distressed, postponed for eight days the sacrifice of his daughter, but finally, under the pressure of the people, the king was forced to give up his daughter. the young, dressed in her best clothes, headed towards the lake to be devoured by the beast. As he walked towards his fateful fate, he met Saint George, who told her that he would help her in the name of Christ. This one mounted on a white horse, smote the dragon, and asked the maiden to hold the beast with the belt to finally kill it. Faced with this fact, the grateful citizens abandoned paganism and embraced the new Christian faith. This fabulous story was popularized by Santiago de la Vorágine in his work The Golden Legend, and it is the one that has given rise to the greatest number of representations of this saint. The theme of a young man's fight against a dragon to free a princess is not new. In fact, in Greek mythology we find this same story with Perseus and Andromeda., who in turn the Greek hero is a version of the Egyptian god Horus, who is represented on horseback and piercing a crocodile with a spear. Therefore, the figure of Saint George killing the dragon must be interpreted as a Christianization of pagan myths.. Thus, and by extension, the triumph of Saint George over the dragon represents the triumph of Christianity over paganism.
The chasuble is the most important ornament of the Catholic liturgy due to its function and symbolism., because it is used by the presbyter for the celebration of the sacrifice of the mass and represents the charity and the yoke of the Lord, and recalls the purple mantle with which Christ was clothed in the praetorium. Its shape has varied throughout history., but we can say that it is a rectangular textile garment, that has no seam on the sides and presents a central opening to pass the head, so that one half remains on the back and the other on the chest. Its origin must be found in the Greco-Roman "casula" or "paenula"., which was a dress worn by the Roman senatorial class in the early 4th century, and consisted of a semicircular wool cloak, with an opening in the center to pass the head. From the 9th century, this garment began to be made with the ornate Byzantine silks. In order to reduce the weight of this and facilitate the movement of the arms of the priest, it began to cut on the sides, to move to an elliptical shape in the 10th and 11th centuries, First, and rectangular or bell-shaped later in the 12th and 13th centuries. From the 13th century, the most important changes in its form began as a result of the innovations introduced in the Eucharistic celebration., as the elevation of the Sacred Form so that the entire congregation of the faithful could see it. The modifications lasted until the 16th century due to the diffusion of the use of embroidered fabrics.. Indeed, from the 16th century on, increasingly heavier fabrics and ornaments began to be used, which motivated the chasubles to become more and more cut and open more on the sides and with rounded corners. The shorter model was commonly known in Spain under the name of guitarra or guitarrón., due to its rounded contours and narrowness in the area of the arms and shoulders.
The decoration of the chasubles has also been very varied., but in general lines we can affirm that it presented in the center a scapular with a vertical border in which saints were frequently represented., The Virgin or Scenes from the Passion of Christ. For its preparation, noble fabrics were always used, especially silk or velvet, who originally came from Alexandria, Damascus and Byzantium; during the Middle Ages the Arab factories of Sicily and Spain were famous; after the 13th century, the apricots, brocades and velvets from Genoa and Venice. Wool and cotton were also used on some occasions.. On the sumptuous fabrics the aforementioned images were embroidered using a highly refined technique such as “needle painting”. The colors of the chasubles vary according to the season and liturgical function to be celebrated. A) Yes, the Red color, like the one that concerns us, represents the love of God and the blood shed by the martyrs, charity and heroism of sacrifice. It is used for the festivities of the celebration of the Passion and death of Jesus (Palm Sunday, liturgical services of Good Friday, the exaltation of the Holy Cross…), festivals or votive masses of the Holy Spirit such as Pentecost and festivals or memories of Holy Martyrs, Apostles and Evangelists.
CONCLUSION
Sacred art has always sought a balance between functionality and an evangelizing message.. Liturgical ornaments represent the sacred and their iconography goes beyond the mere ornamental sense.. In this sense, liturgical textile heritage fulfills a primary function, because it supposes at the same time an artistic manifestation and a means of evangelization.
PHOTOGRAPHY 3
Detail of the embroidery of the scene of Saint George and the dragon
PHOTOGRAPHY 4
Stole, chalice cover and pall
