Altar Cloth

Italy

17th century

  • Titles Altar Cloth (Descriptive)
  • Medium linen; lace
  • Dimensions 7 1/8 x 86 1/4 in. (18.1 x 219.1 cm)
  • Credit Line Gift of Coleman Cooper in memory of his mother, Olive Bryan Cooper, 1984.195.2
  • Work Type altar cloth
  • Classification Needlework

See More of the Collection

Small cast-iron cuff link, or button, comprised of four Gothic tracery elements and a central medallion with the symbols of faith, love and hope—a cross, heart and anchor—on a polished steel plate and set in gold.
Tall, wheel-turned vase of brownish stoneware covered with an irregular beige ash glaze that runs from the top to bottom, leaving a trail of drips at the lower body, the top of the vase with a bulbous shoulder tapering to a narrow neck and small opening with slightly flared lip.
Oval blue jasper medallion with white relief portrait of Warren Hastings (1732-1818), an English statesman, was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto Governor-General of India from 1772 to 1785. He was accused of corruption and impeached in 1787, but after a long trial he was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1814.
Solid light blue jasper vase with white jasper relief decoration, the so-called Michelangelo vase because the model is based on designs after the Italian artist Michelangelo, shape number 180, the vase or bowl with applied white floral festoons and arabesque floral motifs mounted atop the backs of three molded, white jasper classical figures draped in blue jasper, who appear to support the weight of the bowl, with a fluted column in the middle as support, on a triangular base.