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Source Description
From the 1100s to the 1300s in London, both men and women worked as professional embroiderers. Here, the Tree of Jesse, a favorite medieval theme illustrating the ancestry of Christ, appears as a grapevine with three ancestors—Achim, Ezechias, and Eliud—seated on tendrils. Painters often provided embroiderers with designs, revealing a close relationship between the professions.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
127182
label
Orphrey Band: The Tree of Jesse
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
127182
contentType
object
title
Orphrey Band: The Tree of Jesse
description
From the 1100s to the 1300s in London, both men and women worked as professional embroiderers. Here, the Tree of Jesse, a favorite medieval theme illustrating the ancestry of Christ, appears as a grapevine with three ancestors—Achim, Ezechias, and Eliud—seated on tendrils. Painters often provided embroiderers with designs, revealing a close relationship between the professions.
date
c. 1350
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79906969
genreSpecific
Embroidery
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 85.7 x 18.1 cm (33 3/4 x 7 1/8 in.); Mounted: 109.2 x 28.6 cm (43 x 11 1/4 in.)
cul
England
accession
1949.503
Source extras
tec
Silk, gold and silver thread, linen; embroidery: split and couching stitches
tombstone
Orphrey Band: The Tree of Jesse, c. 1350. England. Silk, gold and silver thread, linen; embroidery: split and couching stitches; overall: 85.7 x 18.1 cm (33 3/4 x 7 1/8 in.); mounted: 109.2 x 28.6 cm (43 x 11 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1949.503
collection
T - Ecclesiastical
inscriptions
inscription
three figures framed by a scrolling vine dressed in medieval costumes hold scrolls on which their names are written in Latin; they read from top to bottom: Achim, Ezechias-Rex, and Eloud.
citations
citation
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Arts of the Middle Ages; A Loan Exhibition, February 17 to March 24, 1940. Boston, Mass: Museum of Fine Arts, 1940.
page_number
no. 100b, p. 35
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "An English Embroidery." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. 37, no. 4 (1950):
page_number
p. 66-68
url
www.jstor.org/stable/25141627
citation
Riefstahl, Elizabeth. "An Embroidered Tree of Jesse." <em>Brooklyn Museum Bulletin</em> 11, no. 4 (1950): 4-13. Accessed April 24, 2020.
page_number
p. 4-13
url
www.jstor.org/stable/26458022
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 153
citation
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. Aspects of Late Mediaeval Art; The Mediaeval Conference, the Ohio State University. 1958.
page_number
no. 3 (under textiles)
citation
King, Donald. Opus Anglicanum; English Medieval Embroidery. [London]: Arts Council, 1963.
page_number
no. 88, p. 42
citation
Bober, Harry. 1963. "Medieval Art at Cleveland". Apollo 78. 447-456.
page_number
p.456
citation
"Gothic Art 1360-1440." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 50, no. 7 (1963): 174-215.
page_number
no. 49, pp.176, 207
url
www.jstor.org/stable/25151960.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 62
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 62
citation
Mayer-Thurman, Christa C., John Maxon, Aidan Kavanagh, Donald L. Garfield, and Horace T. Allen. Raiment for the Lord's Service: A Thousand Years of Western Vestments. Chicago: Art Institute, 1975.
page_number
no. 14, p. 82, p. 83 illus
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 71
citation
Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985.
page_number
p. 15, 17-18, 58
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992.
page_number
p.98
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-06-10 17:59:17.607000
sourceId
127182
dept
Textiles
coll
T - Ecclesiastical
med
Silk, gold and silver thread, linen; embroidery: split and couching stitches
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
1e010415bbc93625