Description

Sheaves of wheat and bunches of grapes, symbols of bread and wine in the Mass, are embroidered with silver-metal thread amid scrolling leaves on the green silk-damask ground. Liturgical colors—white, red, green, and black, purple, or blue—mandated by Pope Innocent III in the late 1100s were widely ignored by the 1700s, replaced primarily by a lavish use of gold, silver, and pastel silk thread embroidered on white silk fabrics. Long matching stoles were worn under the chasuble in styles that identified deacons, priests, and bishops.