About the Artwork
This embroidery, which originally may have been as long as fourteen feet, is one end of a cover for a church lectern. White-on-white embroideries of this type, traditionally done by nuns, are associated with Westphalian workshops in the Gothic period. The friezelike border depicts an episode from the life of Saint Giles who, according to legend, lived as a hermit in a cave near the Rhone River in France. When a deer pursued by a royal hunting party sought shelter with Giles, the saint was accidentally wounded by an arrow. He refused medical attention but was miraculously healed, inspiring the king to found a monastery on the spot. The embroidery depicts the saint in his cave at the left as the king and bishop, both on horseback, approach from the right with the hunters.
Lectern Cover
14th century
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German
German
Linen embroidery on plain weave linen in three stitches; german interlacing, plaited braid and chain stitch
Overall: 27 1/4 × 49 1/8 inches (69.2 × 124.8 cm)
Embroidery
European Sculpture and Dec Arts
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund with a contribution from the David L. Klein, Jr. Memorial Foundation.
1989.47
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
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Provenance
Hillemeyer collection (Paderborn, Germany)
European art market (Europe). (Galerie Ruf, Rastatt, Germany)
1989-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Aldenkirchen, J. "Fruhmittelalterliche Leinen- Stickereien," Jahrbticher des Vereins von Alterthums. freunden im Rheinlande 78, Bonn: Gedruckt auf Kosten des Vereins, 1884, pp. 256-272 and plates.
Ludorff, A. Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler von Westfalen (Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Paderborn). Munster, 1899, p. 140, pl. 110.
Grabke, H.A. "Eine westfalische Gruppe gestickter Leinen- decken des Mittelalters," Westfalen 23, no. 3, 1938, pp. 179-194, pl. 38-46.
Einhorn, J. W. "Ein jungst aufgefundenes Fragment der Soester Lesepult-Decke im Victoria and Albert Museum London," Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichrw 34, no. 1, 1971, pp. 47-58.
Einhorn, J. W. Munsterische Mittelalter-Schriften 13: Spiritalis unicornis. Das Einhorn als Bedeutungsträger in. Literatur und Kunst des Mittelalters. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1976, p. 354.
Bulletin of the DIA 65, no. 2/3, 1989, p. 24, fig. 20, (ill).
"Selected recent acquisitions," Bulletin of the DIA 65, no. 4, 1990, p. 56, (ill).
Barnet, P. Clothed in Majesty: European Ecclesiastical Textiles from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1991, no. 3, p. 17; no. 3, pp. 5-6.
Barnet, P. "Opus Teutonicum: A Medieval Westphalian Lectern Cover," Hali 17, pp. 98-100, 116
Darr, A. & T. Albainy. "Acquisitions of European sculpture and decorative arts at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1988 - 1999," The Burlington Magazine 142 (June 2000): 405, no. II (color ill).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
German, Lectern Cover, 14th century, linen embroidery on plain weave linen in three stitches; German interlacing, plaited braid and chain stitch. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund with a contribution from the David L. Klein, Jr. Memorial Foundation., 1989.47.
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