Textile Fragment with the Annunciation

The motif shown here depicts the Virgin Mary and the angel Gabriel in a repeating sequence. Both figures kneel above a bed of flowers while a dove representing the Holy Ghost hovers above. The ground of this luxury silk, woven with highlights of gold thread, is now a faded blue. Its original purpose is not clear, but it may have originally been part of an altar frontal or possibly an ecclesiastical cope, or cape.