AN EMBROIDERED PANEL OF CHINESE YELLOW SILK
Missionary work for the Christian market, China, 19th century

Worked in coloured silks, metal threads, and fragments of satin silk, applied with spot motifs representing the Arma Christi (Weapons of Christ) or the Instruments of Passion, the central cross (no longer extant) topped by the Pelican in Her Piety above the Titulus Crucis (INRI), below the Crown of Thorns pierced by the large nails, flanked by the clock face, the chalice, the crow atop a column with chains, the sponge and the spear, the ladder, the hammer and pincers, the sword, the sceptre, Christ’s Robe of Mockery, the lantern and the pitcher, the flagellation chains, the hand that struck Christ, outlines of the dice and pieces of silver visible through remaining pin pricks, laid on yellow tabby silk, backed, stretched and mounted, 86.5cm x 56cm.

Ever since the Middle Ages, the Pelican in Her Piety has been a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, Passion, and the Eucharist. In the present panel, it replaces the crucified Jesus. The symbolic elements represent crucial episodes from the Passion, including the Mockery of Christ, the flagellation, Joseph of Arimathea catching the blood of Jesus in a chalice, and the rooster crowing after Peter’s third Denial of Christ, among many others. The passage of the Christian story from its Middle Eastern origins across centuries, through Western missionaries, into Chinese decorative arts is encapsulated in this liturgical panel. The use of Chinese Imperial yellow is symbolically significant and intentional.