Opus Anglicanum

Opus Anglicanum or English work is fine needlework of Medieval England done for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothing, hangings or other textiles, often using gold and silver threads on rich velvet or linen grounds.

These exquisite and expensive embroidery pieces were often made as vestments, such as copes, chasubles and orphreys, or else as antependia, shrine covers or other church furnishings.

A Vatican inventory of 1295 lists over 113 pieces from England, more than from any other country;[4] a request by Pope Innocent IV, who had envied the gold-embroidered copes and mitres of English priests, that Cistercian religious houses send more is reported by the Benedictine chronicler Matthew Paris of St Albans: "This command of my Lord Pope did not displease the London merchants who traded in these embroideries and sold them at their own price.

An influential exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum from September–November 1963 displayed several examples of Opus Anglicanum from this period alongside contemporary works of wood and stone sculpture, metalwork and ivories.

[6] Survival rates for Opus Anglicanum are low (especially for secular works) as is clear from comparing the large number listed in contemporary inventories with the handful of examples still existing.

[7] The earliest group of survivals, now re-arranged and with the precious metal thread mostly picked out, are bands or borders from vestments, incorporating pearls and glass beads, with various types of scroll and animal decoration.

[8] A further style of textile is a vestment illustrated in a miniature portrait of Saint Aethelwold in his Benedictional, which shows the edge of what appears to be a huge acanthus "flower" (a term used in several documentary records) covering the wearer's back and shoulders.

[9] One particularly fine example is The Adoration of the Magi chasuble from c. 1325 in red velvet embroidered in gold thread and pearls at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

At the time, Edward III tried to claim the French throne starting the Hundred Years' War, leading to displays of power through extravagant art.

[16] There are two beautiful examples of Opus Anglicanum, which came as the end pieces of an altarpendium (antependium)in the care of the Bern Historical Museum in Switzerland.

Section of a 15th-century English chasuble
Embroidered bookbinding for the Felbrigge Psalter in couched gold thread and split stitch, likely worked by Anne de Felbrigge, a nun in the convent of Minoresses at Bruisyard , Suffolk, during the latter half of the fourteenth century. [ 1 ]
The Butler-Bowden Cope , 1330–50, V&A Museum
Opus Anglicanum example in the care of the Berne Historical Museum in Switzerland.
Chichester-Constable Chasuble (front), from a set of vestments embroidered in opus anglicanum , from southern England, 1330-1350. Red velvet with silk and metallic thread and seed pearls; length 5ft. 6in. (167.6cm), width 30in. (76.2cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Life of the Virgin, Chichester-Constable Chasuble (back), from a set of vestments embroidered in opus anglicanum , from southern England, 1330-1350. Red velvet with silk and metallic thread and seed pearls; length 5ft. 6in. (167.6cm), width 30in. (76.2cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art.