A Solemn Set of Vestments in Rose from 1725-1750

For one reason or another, rose coloured vestments always have a great deal of interest surrounding them. These days, people tend to think of only limited shades of this colour, but in historical reality, there was quite a variety ranging from light pinks, orangey-pinks, coral and salmon, to more purplish, dusty rose shades. All of them qualify as the colour the liturgical books terms "rosacea" (and for the record, while many tend to prefer to use the English translation "rose" and attempt to distance it from "pink," the reality is either translation are equally valid, just as "violacea' can be translated as either "violet" or "purple.")

That said, like almost any liturgical colour (with the possible exception of black) there can be a range of shades found within that particular colour and it is perfectly legitimate to have one's own particular preferences for the shade they find most noble. (For the record, for myself, that is the shade known as coral rose as we find in the vestments featured today).

Now if rose vestments catch a lot of interest and attention, solemn sets in rosacea all the more so, primarily for the reason that they are rarer to come by. The particular set I wished to share with our readers today is one which I've shown the chasuble from before, but I have never shared the rest of the set, which is indeed a solemn Mass set comprised of the chasuble, cope, dalmatic and tunicle.  Today I will rectify that omission.

First a couple of words about the set. It is an eighteenth century set that made in -- where else -- Venice. Specifically it is dated to the second quarter of the eighteenth century (i.e. sometime between 1725-1750). The silk itself is a elegant silk lampas with silver set onto a coral or salmon rose ground. The design within the lampas is a floral motif made up of peonies and serrated palmettes. 

Paired with this elegant silk lampas are silver galloons -- a colour combination that always works well, but especially so in this particular instance. The cut of the vestment follows a shape typical to the north of Italy and which also can be found elsewhere through this region into places such as Austria. (However, it must be noted that the cut is more Italian than it is Austrian, however, I wanted to draw our readers attention to this fact.)

With that background in mind, let's take a look at some of the pieces from the set, beginning with the chasuble you may already have some familiarity with. 

Now we turn to some of the pieces that we have not shown our readers before, beginning with one of the dalmatics (the other is for all intents and purposes identical, so we'll simply show the one). 

 

The cope from the set follows a typical Italian cut. 

Finally, the maniple, absent of fringe and rounded at the bottom -- something one also finds in vestments from the Spanish and Austrian tradition. 

One will note that the arms of the dalmatic, as well as the maniple shown above, show how bits and pieces of the silk lampas fabric were stitched together to help fill out the form of these pieces. That fact suggests to me that these fabrics were likely, as was common in this time, donated, probably coming from some other usage prior to being donated to the Church and then refashioned into sacred vestments. 

While, regrettably, I do not have the other pieces to the set (i.e. the humeral veil, stole, chalice veil and burse) it is not difficult to imagine these based upon these other parts and pieces.  

To my mind, this is one of the most noble and elegant sets in rosacea that I have come across over the years. 

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