A rare textile panel with eagles and lions

Description:

Nuremberg, 2nd half 14th century.
122 x 17 cm, R.
Silk, embroidery on a blue silk ground, framed under glass. The narrow textile strip shows the double-headed eagle and the striding lion in alternating round and octagonal medallions, with ornamental tendrils in between. The motifs are executed in dense silk embroidery on a dark blue silk background. The regular sequence of heraldic animals indicates an original representative function, possibly as trimming for a liturgical parament (e.g. chasuble or pluvial border) or as part of a religious textile. Traces of age.
Important private collection Rhineland, acquired on 14.5.1960, at Ars Antiqua AG Lucerne, published in the auction catalogue and described on page 40, lot 386. By descent within the family to the present owner
The choice of animal motifs - eagle and lion - refers to the heraldic symbolism of the time: the double-headed eagle as a symbol of the empire and the lion as the heraldic animal of various Frankish and Upper German territories. The origin from Nürnberg is plausible due to stylistic features and the rich stock of workshops there in the 14th century. See Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nüremberg, Inv. No. T 53: Embroideries with heraldic animal medallions on a coloured silk ground. Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nüremberg) - Online object catalogue includes a record "Kaselstab und Kaselkreuz (Gew2515) - minor restorations and damages due to age