The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy (Santuario di Nostra Signora della Misericordia) is a Renaissance era church originally constructed in the mid 16th century, designed by Pace Antonio Somano with a later baroque facade added early on in the 17th century by Taddeo Carlone. The church is located in Savona in the north of Italy (Liguria).
The church and its art has a particularly Marian flavour as it was built on the site of a Marian apparition that ended a war between Savona and Genoa. Amongst other things, it is richly endowed with a number of very fine vestments -- including a number in the lighter bluetype of hue that is typically Marian in intent (unlike the darker blues which was instead penitential and related to black and violet).
Many of the fabrics -- which are sourced to manufacturing locations like Lyon, Tours and Venice -- were donated by aristocratic families including the common 18th century practice of noblewomen donating the precious fabrics from their gowns which could then be refashioned into vestments.
This is a pertinent reminder for those who are newly becoming interested in the vestment arts that the notion of specifically "ecclesiastical fabrics" is an entirely modern notion, having its origins in the later 19th century.
That bit of context aside, a closer look at some of the vestments. Those shown here date from the 17th and 18th centuries.
