opus anglicanum

opus anglicanum (Latin: ‘English work’). Term used on the Continent in the late 13th and 14th centuries to describe the sumptuous English embroidery of that period and all other embroidery in similar style. English embroiderers were recognized as the best in Europe at this time and their church vestments were widely exported (a Vatican inventory of 1295 contains more than 100 references to such work). Surviving examples mainly date from c.1250 to c.1350 (the reasons for the decline in the art after this date are unclear). Typically they feature small figures or religious scenes, comparable in style with East Anglian manuscript illumination of the time (the vestments were presumably sometimes designed by painters), framed by foliaged scrolls or in geometrical or architectural compartments; these designs are worked in coloured silks, generally on backgrounds of gold thread. Fine examples remain in the treasuries of several major Continental churches, and opus anglicanum is also well represented in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, notably with the celebrated Syon Cope (c.1300–20).