Opus Anglicanum in Bella Italia

I hope you haven't missed my blogs too much! For the past two weeks, I've been on holiday in Italy with my husband, and we took my Patrons virtually with us! We started in Bologna, were nearly drowned in Ravenna, journeyed on to Neapels and ended in Rome. And apart from spending a whopping four days in Pompeii and a whole day in Herculaneum, we did seek out medieval goldwork embroidery! Some of you might know that most Opus anglicanum pieces have actually not survived in England. Especially Italy houses several spectacular pieces. Other medieval goldwork embroidery seems to be more sparse. And this is due to the fact that these pieces are often still owned, and sometimes used!, by their respective churches. But it is well worth a try to check out every church museum or medieval museum you come across. Most stuff will be from the 17th century upwards as there's just much more preserved from that younger time period. But every so often, you will come across little gems you probably did not know existed.

The chasuble of Bishop Giovanni Angelopte exhibited in the Museo Arcivescovile in Ravenna, Italy, is one of these gems. When you want to see the famous 5th-7th century mosaics for which Ravenna is known, entry to this church museum is included in your ticket. It is only a small museum, and the chasuble is displayed in one of the last rooms. The chasuble is named after a 5th-century bishop of Ravenna. However, the chasuble dates to the second half of the 12th century and was made in Sicily.

The dark blue brocatelle fabric is powdered with gold embroidered eagles and moons. The very fine goldwork embroidery is executed with a single gold thread. Probably in surface couching with a red silken couching thread. Different couching patterns seem to have been used to distinguish the different parts of the eagle (I think I see a brick stitch and a slanted line). The outline is stitched with a thicker red silk, probably in stem stitch. Additional details like the eye have been added in black silk on top of the gold work.

The production of this chasuble falls within the dates of when the Normans ruled the island. This means that this piece was likely made in the Royal Workshops, or Nobiles Officinae, in Palermo. Another famous piece from this multi-ethnic workshop, where Arab embroiderers worked side by side with Greek weavers, is the Mantle of Roger II and other pieces now kept in the Imperial Treasury in Vienna, Austria.

When you are familiar with Opus anglicanum, you might have spotted the perfect opportunity in my itinerary. Indeed. The Bologna cope, made shortly before AD 1304, is kept in the Museo Civico Medievale in Bologna. When you plan to visit, check their opening times, as these are pretty irregular. The cope is displayed in a small room on the ground floor. Ask one of the elderly men on guard duty by showing them a picture on your phone. They might even switch the additional lighting on for you. They are very proud of the piece and enjoy seeing visitors from all over the world study it. You can take as many pictures as you want as long as you don't use flash.

True Opus-nerds will have spotted another great opportunity for studying Opus in the wild: Rome. Not only does the Vatican have two of these beauties (more on that below), but Anagni Cathedral has a whole room full of the stuff. The most famous is the Anagni cope, which was made in the last quarter of the 13th century. Anagni used to be an important town where four medieval popes were born. It was the summer residence of the popes in the 12th and 13th centuries. Nowadays, it is a beautiful medieval Italian small town sitting in the hills southeast of Rome.

Getting to Anagni from Rome is pretty simple when you know how :). So here it comes: if you are brave enough to tackle Italian traffic, you can rent a car. For all others: go by public transport. You can buy a return ticket to Anagni Citta at the Trenitalia vending machines at Roma Termini train station (it is €10,20 for a return ticket). Just pick a return time when you buy your ticket. You do not need to stick to it. This ticket is for both the train to Anagni-Fiuggi station and the 20-minute bus ride from the station to the historical centre in the hills. The bus stands in front of the station building. Download the Omio app to see the train and bus times. These are reliable but irregular. Italian bus stops do not display timetables. Use Google Maps to see where the bus stops are. They are not always opposite of where you were let off the bus when you came. The journey takes about 1 hour and 41 minutes.

The other thing you'll need to do is to book your museum visit. Anagni Cathedral has a painted crypt that is known as the Medieval Sixtine Chapel. It is gorgeous. And it is far more famous than the outstanding medieval embroidery kept in the Cathedral Treasury. The website is completely in Italian. The museum will review your booking request, and you will receive a confirmation by email (in Italian, of course!). Once at the museum, you are allowed to take as many pictures as you want as long as you don't use flash. The room has a timed light switch, so it pays to have a 'helper' with you.

And last but not least, there's the Vatican cope housed in the Vatican. There's also the Lateran cope, which is part of the Vatican Library collection. However, I have no idea if that one is on display or how to get into the library. If anyone knows, please comment on this blog post. The Vatican Cope is displayed in the Vatican Museums. Make sure you have an online ticket that allows you to jump the line. It is worth paying the extra money to avoid the immense queues that people spend hours in. Turn up at the online jump-the-line ticket entry at the time slot you booked, and you will be in the museum within minutes. Then, the frustration begins. Make sure you visit the other 'loose' parts of the Vatican Museums before you join the masses to visit the Sixtine Chapel. Once in this visitor loop, you are not allowed to turn around. Unfortunately for us, the Vatican cope is displayed at the end of the museum visitor route. It is past the Sixtine Chapel and past the bookstores at the end of the part that is called the Museo Cristiano. Even when you push on as much as you can and don't look at anything on your way to the cope, not even the Sixtine Chapel, it will take you about an hour to get there.

The cope is displayed slightly tilted under horrible glass and ditto lighting. There is no caption. Although this is the only vestment on display in all of the Vatican Museums, it was apparently not worthy of a caption. People hurry by and don't really notice this outstanding piece of embroidery. What a shame! The good thing is you can take as many pictures as you like as long as you don't use flash. As the embroidery is so fine and the glare of the glass is so annoying, place your phone gently on the glass of the display case and use the enlarge function of your camera. Again: no flash and no additional light! You'll be amazed at all the details and embroidery techniques you will discover this way.

I hope you liked this summary of my travels in Italy. This will be the basis of future blog posts on the many splendid pieces I saw. But first, I will need to sort my hundreds of pictures. And try to find literature on the more obscure pieces I saw. Many happy hours of research and study await!