1. Introduction

Because of the upcoming millennium of Christianity and the State of Poland, numerous archaeological excavations took place at the end of the 1940s. They were conducted by a specially set up governing body which later became the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Acade-my of Sciences. The Lodz division of the Institute worked on, amongst others, the set of historical objects in Tum near Łęczyca. It includes the settlement fortifi ed with an earth and wood rampart (grod) and the Romanesque colle-giate church of Virgin Mary and St. Alexis. Under the church, the archaeologists discovered the foundations of the earlier abbey of the Virgin Mary from the 11th and 12th century, mentioned in ‘The Bull of Gniezno’ from 1136 as an Abbatia Sanctae Mariae in castello Lanciciae (Nadolski et al. 1960, 5-94).

Today the collegiate church is one of the most beautiful monuments of Romanesque architecture in Poland. Built in the 1140s and consecrated in 1161, it was later rebuilt a few times. At the beginning of World War II it was seriously damaged. Archaeological works preceded conservation and restoration conducted in the 1950s. The works were repeated at the turn of the 21th century.

During the excavations more the 100 graves were discov-ered under the ground fl oor, both inhumation graves and crypts. There was a certain number of graves from the Mid-dle Ages and modern times among them. However, most graves could not be dated precisely. In most of them no ancillary objects were found, but very few objects indicated that clergymen were buried there. In some of the graves, stratigraphically dated to the 16th century, fragments of silk were found. Textiles from four graves were analysed and

Figural Embroidery from Tum Collegiate Church – Analysis, Reconstruction and Identifi cationMaria Cybulska, Sławomir Kuberski, Jerzy Maik, Ewa Orlińska-Mianowska

Fig. 1: Plan of Tum collegiate church with the position of the grave assigned by the red dot and sketch of the grave with residues of embroidery.

Maria Cybulska, Sławomir Kuberski, Jerzy Maik, Ewa Orlińska-Mianowska186

published by Nahlik (1956, 95-107). In the archives of the Institute of Archaeology and Etnology in Lodz there are some documents with results of analyses of textiles from two other graves (Archives of IAE PAN, Lodz, No. XI/B/25).

2. Description of the Object

The textile object which is the subject of this paper has never been analysed before. It was found during the exca-vation in 1955 in a grave dated to the 16th century which was located under the fl oor of the nave of the church. According to notes from the excavation, “it was denoted by the letter Y. The legs of the body were oriented to the west. The grave was placed 99–102 cm below the ground fl oor level. A relatively large textile fragment was found in the grave” (Archives of IAE PAN, Lodz, No. XI/B/8).

Although on a sketch of the grave it gives the impression of one coherent fragment (size 50 x 25 cm), according to the explorers remarks, it already disintegrated into smaller pieces at the moment of excavation. As can be seen in Fig. 1, the textile was placed under the hips and thighs of the buried body. The position of the textile, the fact that it was a clergy-man’s burial, and analysis of the fragments allow us to assume that the object is a fragment of the back of a chasuble.

The whole object includes a number of fragments of fi gural embroidery, which formed the orphrey decorating the back of a chasuble. We cannot be sure that the fragments include all material that survived to our times. In the 1950s, textiles were not treated as carefully as today. The object was moved from one place to another during about sixty years after excavation. Thus some fragments could have been overlooked or lost.

Fig. 2: Exemplary fragments of the Tum embroidery.

187Figural Embroidery from Tum Collegiate Church – Analysis, Reconstruction and Identifi cation

In its current state it includes a number of separated pieces of embroidery. Five fragments represent heads in diff erent posi-tions: one head with nimbus and one with nimbus and curled hair, two heads with no nimbus in half-profi le, both with curled hair, and one head with crown. The other fragments represent a second crown, a regular fragment of embroidery resembling the cloth, a nimbus attached to the long fragment of embroidery which was probably the background for fi g-ures, and a long piece embroidery is in the shape of a mean-der. The best preserved fragments are beautifully elaborated, showing a fi gure with hands raised, with one foot and no head and a coat of arms with three gold fi shes in a red fi eld (Fig. 2).

3. Analysis of Material and Techniques

The material was analysed by means of optical microscopy, AAS (Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy) and a FEI Quanta 200F electron microscope with elemental composition analyser.

Material used for embroidery includes silk threads in diff er-ent colours and widths, metal threads in diff erent forms, silk taff eta, seed pearls and spangles and decorative cords. Paper and fi bres were used in raised works. The threads include

single and plied silk as well as metal threads, including gold wire wrapped with silk, silver, silver-gilded and silver-plated copper threads in the form of metal lamella wrapped around the silk core, decorative cords twisted from some number of metal threads.

The embroidery displays diff erent techniques using silk and metal threads, as well as satin, split and back stitches, diff er-ent types of couching and appliqué. A part of the embroi-dery is almost sculptural with relief. The heads are made using applied raised work on paper and fi brous material. Most of the preserved fragments are in a laid work with dif-ferent types and colours of fastening silk thread (Fig. 3).

Hairs of the heads are made from gold wire wrapped and fastened with silk. Faces with outlined details like eyes, nos-es, lips or cheeks are carefully elaborated with the use of satin, back and split stitches. The last was also applied to draw ornaments in the form of leaves on the background in a laid work. Some elements of clothes are applied to silk taf-feta. Details of cloths in a silk laid work are outlined with sil-ver threads fastened with silk. Meander in laid work is made from silver threads and decorative cord from three silver-plated copper threads twisted together.

Fig. 3: Exemplary materials and techniques.

Maria Cybulska, Sławomir Kuberski, Jerzy Maik, Ewa Orlińska-Mianowska188

Nimbuses from the silk taff eta with couched silver-gilt thread, outlined with silver-gilt cord and silk threads are decorated with seed pearls. The long fragment on the right side repre-sents the silver-gilt work in laid technique fastened with a red silk. The coat of arms is also made in a laid technique with a fi eld in a red silk point d’orient and executed in the form of three fi shes in silver gilt thread. Crowns in the laid work from silk plied threads outlined with the silver thread wrapped with a silk are decorated with silver spangles and small outlined squares in satin work, imitating the jewels.

4. Origin and Dating of the Embroidery

The word Tum originates from German Dom, and in the Mid-dle Ages it meant a collegiate church. In the 15th century it was the Archicollegiate church of Łęczyca. We have no any evidence about who was buried in the Tum grave. However, we can attempt to determine the origin of the chasuble by the embroidered coat of arms in the form of three fi shes on a red shield It has been known in Poland from at least 1322 onwards. Among the clergymen affi liated with the collegiate church in Tum, we found Zygmunt Łącki bearing the Korzbok coat of arms, from Kamieniec. He was a canon in Gniezno, and then in Poznan. In 1493 he became a Custodian of Łęczyca. In 1517 Zygmunt came back to Poznan. He died in 1521 and was buried probably in the Korzbok’s family chapel (now John Cantius chapel) founded by Maciej Korzbok in 1422–23 in Poznan Cathedral. Zygmunt was known as donor of a liturgical vestment. He contributed, among others, the chasuble, alb and amice in goldwork with the Korzbok coat of arms to Gniezno and two chasubles to Poznan cathedral (Nowacki 1959; Kowalska-Pietrzak 2004, 194-196). It is most likely him who was the donor of the Tum chasuble.

5. Reconstruction of the Orphrey

On the basis of comparable historical objects and analysis of the surviving fragments we made an attempt to reconstruct the orphrey. In the beginning we had to carefully analyse all fragments and their hypothetical positioning in the orphrey. The head with nimbus and curled hair is inclined downward to the right. The head with nimbus is raised up to the left and the one without nimbus in half-profi le is inclined up to the right. One can associate the three heads with the crucifi xion: the head of Christ and two fi gures standing at the cross looking at Christ – probably the fi gures of the Virgin Mary and St. John.

The next piece with couched meander was originally placed in the centre of the orphrey and is relatively long – too long to be an outline of any fi gure. The fi gure with one foot and hands raised, if in vertical position, looked strange. It was probably half lying. These two fragments can be associated with the tree of Jesse, which is often depicted in orphreys.

The lower part of the long fragment in laid work is especial-ly interesting because of traces of the fi gure which original-ly must have been there. One can see the contour with a

small nimbus. It was originally placed on the right side of the orphrey. However, similar embroidery could probably have been placed on the left side, too. If our hypothesis is right, two symmetrical fi gures could represent St. Anna and St. Joachim – the parents of the Virgin Mary. The last remaining head with a crown could present any of the holy virgins often presented in the arms of orphrey crosses.

We prepared the background in the form of the back of the chasuble. Based on comparable textiles we made an assump-tion that the orphrey in the form of a cross was around 20 cm wide. We placed all fragments on the drawn orphrey. In Fig. 4 we can see the arrangement of the fragments we chose as the most appropriate.

We also made an approach to reconstruct the original appearance of the orphrey by means of computer graphics (Cybulska 2010). In Fig. 5 and 6 one can see the embroidery

Fig. 4: The arrangement of the surviving fragments of embroidery.

189Figural Embroidery from Tum Collegiate Church – Analysis, Reconstruction and Identifi cation

Fig. 5: Virtual reconstruction of the orphrey.

Maria Cybulska, Sławomir Kuberski, Jerzy Maik, Ewa Orlińska-Mianowska190

as it might have looked if the whole object had survived to our times. In the virtual reconstruction we used only origi-nal elements of the preserved fragments.

6. Comparable Objects

Chasubles with embroidered columns can be found in many Polish and world collections. Very often the orphreys present scenes from the lives of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, like the annunciation, the visitation, the birth of Jesus or the adoration of the Magi, and very often the crucifi xion (Gu -towska-Rychlewska / Taszycka 1967). In Fig. 7 one can see exemplary chasubles with orphreys from the 15th and the turn of the 16th century from the Archdiocese Museum in Poznan and the National Museum in Warsaw.

We compared our object with two similar chasubles from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, dated to the second half of the 15th century. The fi rst orphrey presents Jesus on the cross and the Virgin Mary and St. John at the cross. St. Peter and St. Paul are placed in the arms of the cross, the fi gure of God is seen above the cross, as well as St. Dorotea.

The next chasuble presents the tree of Jesse – Virgin Mary and St. John at the cross, St. Peter and St. Paul on its sides, centrally placed the fi gure of the Virgin Mary, and St. Anne and Joachim below. At the bottom one can see the fi gure of Jesse lying on the ground.

Both orphreys show many similarities with our object. They do not only concern the theme and composition but also the workshop – embroidery techniques and materials used in the work are very similar: raised faces, hair made from gold wire wrapped with silk, nimbus from the silk taff eta outlined with couched metal thread and the crown deco-rated with spangles.

Fig. 7: Chasubles from the 15th and the turn of the 16th century from the Archdiocese Museum in Poznan (on the left) and the National Museum in Warsaw.

Fig. 6: Virtual reconstruction of the orphrey: a detail.

191Figural Embroidery from Tum Collegiate Church – Analysis, Reconstruction and Identifi cation

As to the workshop, we cannot determine it. In the 15th cen-tury there were many workshops in monasteries, such as the famous workshop in Saint Bridget of Sweden monas-tery in Gdansk, or workshops in Krakow. At the beginning of the 16th century, the embroidery workshop of Pawel Krela was working in Poznan, among others, on liturgical vest-ment. However, due to the high quality of the work and no earlier data about the workshop, our chasuble is more likely to have been made in one of the monastery workshops or even abroad.

7. Summary

The object represents a 15th-century orphrey decorating the back of a chasuble. The embroidery is typical for 15th-centu-ry sculptural work and represents both luxury materials and high embroidery skills. We deal with the top range of liturgi-cal vestments. The chasuble was a donation from Zygmunt Korzbok Łącki, but we do not know who was buried in the chasuble. Unless further documents are discovered in the collegiate archives, the person buried in the grave will remain unknown.

8. Bibliography:

Cybulska 2010M. Cybulska, Reconstruction of Archaeological Textiles. In: FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe, vol. 18, no. 3 (80), 2010, 100-105.

Gutowska-Rychlewska / Taszycka 1967M. Gutowska-Rychlewska / M. Taszycka, Polskie hafty średnio-wieczne. Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie (Kraków 1967).

Kowalska-Pietrzak 2004A. Kowalska-Pietrzak, Prałaci i kanonicy kapituły łęczyckiej do schyłku XV wieku (Łódź 2004).

Nadolski et al. 1960A. Nadolski / A. Abramowicz / T. Poklewski / A. Kąsinowski, Łęczy-ckie opactwo Panny Marii w świetle badań z lat 1954-56. In: Prace i Materiały Muzeum Archeologicznego i Etnografi cznego w Łodzi. Seria archeologiczna 4 (1960).

Nahlik 1956A. Nahlik, Tkaniny z XVI-wiecznych grobów z kolegiaty w Tumie, pow. Łęczyca. In: Na dziesięciolecie łódzkiego ośrodka archeolo-gicznego. Acta Archaeologica Universatis Lodziensis 4 (1956).

Nowacki 1959J. Nowacki, Z Dziejów Archidiecezji Poznańskiej, Księgarnia św. Wojciecha (1959).