Altar frontal
Category
Textiles
Date
circa 1493 - circa 1520
Materials
Silk, Velvet
Measurements
800 mm (Height); 2800 mm (Length)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Cotehele, Cornwall
NT 348343
Summary
Altar frontal showing Christ and the twelve apostles, on dark crimson velvet. Bearing the arms of Sir Piers Edgcumbe and his wife Joan Durnford, who married in 1493; she died in c.1521). Each figure stands under a Gothic canopy of two oriel windows supported by thin poles. A scattering of fleur de lys over the background. It has been exibited in Truro Cathedral: Treasures of the See (2002); the V&A Museum: Gothic: Art for England, 1400-1547 (2003-4); and was featured in 'The History of Cornwall in 100 Objects' (2011). Closely associated with COT.T.111 (348343) are two other textiles in store at Cotehele. COT.T.216 (348391), a black altar frontal applied with figures of saints and the Edgcumbe/Durnford coat of arms of the same hand as COT.T.111; and COT.T.217 (348392), a very fragile and much deteriorated piece of purple velvet, applied with fleur-de-lis by the same hand as COT.T.111, and bordered with a much-altered ecclesiastical textile, probably not associated. More research is needed. All three textiles are described in depth in the 1912-13 minute book of the Society of Antiquaries, London. Lord Valletort (later 5th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe) had allowed the SAL to borrow COT.T.111 (348343), COT.T.216 and COT.T.217. They were discussed in "the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries – London 25, 1912 – 1913", under the title of 'Three altar frontals of English work of the beginning of the sixteenth century and a damask cloth from Cotehele House, Cornwall.' by W. H. St John Hope. His identification of some of the saints on COT.T.111 has been questioned and re-examined by Rosy Griffith and Malcolm Andrew in 'The Cotehele Altar Frontal', Cotehele Journal 4 (2012), pp. 3-9.
Full description
Altar frontal showing Christ and the twelve apostles in the Chapel at Cotehele.