A Modern Workshop Producing the Scarce Art of Polychromed Leather Antependia

In a previous article we touched on some of the gilt leather antependia being produced by Lutson, a family owned and operated business operating near Lourdes, France. Their workshop has been producing polychromed, gilt leather for many decades now, offering various designs that are based off of antique historical models. 

Evidently this type of material is not particularly common or well known to many of us, so to better understand what it is that we're looking at here, let's listen to how Lutson describes the materials and process involved in its making:

Lutson leathers are made of bovine leather or alternatively of a robust cellulose paper. The leathers are embossed, covered in a metallic ground, silvered or gilded, hand-painted, antiqued and finally waxed. All in all, a minimum of ten interventions are needed [in order] to produce one panel.

To gain a better sense of how it presents (which is what you are all mainly interested in I am sure), here is an example of one their leather antependia taken from the church of l’Invention-de-Saint-Étienne de Germ in France:

Quite beautiful. Without knowing it ahead of time, most of us (myself included) would have likely assumed that this frontal was made from a silk -- certainly not leather. Where it begins to become more evident that this is not in fact the case is as you get closer and begin to perceive the richly embossed textures that Lutson spoke of:

In many ways, it is a material that captures within it the qualities of both metallic and textile based antependia. 

Painted figurative imagery can be added as well -- as for example in these next two antependia by Lutson that include beautiful painted images of St. John the Baptist and the Immaculate Conception:

But even without the inclusion of figurative imagery these designs are striking. A few more examples for your consideration:

A look in better light

Altar of St. Peter's church in Vic Fezensac

The history of leather antependia is, admittedly, not something I have myself researched, so I have little to offer you on that front I'm afraid. Lutson themselves suggest that their use falls within the period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Certainly their use within that period of time seems quite tenable to me, but given the fragility, scarcity and cost of textiles in even earlier centuries, I do find myself wondering if their origin might not trace back even further, perhaps the Renaissance or even the Middle Ages (after all, while silks were costlier and scarcer in those times, leather would have not been).

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