This woven silk panel (36.2 x 55.2 cm; see link for better image) is from Florence or Siena, made in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. It would have been part of a liturgical vestment worn by one of the sacred ministers in church. Under a canopy borne by four angels, the Virgin Mary kneels before her baby. The letters ‘VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST’ appear on the panels of the canopy; a scriptural annotation literally interwoven into the scene. God took on human flesh in the infant Christ, this image tells us, but it is also symbolic of the Eucharist: a canopy such as this would be used in liturgical processions, to protect and honour the Blessed Sacrament. The stylised representation of the manger with its radiant beams is reminiscent of a monstrance, with which the sacramental presence would be displayed on the altar or in processions and before which the faithful would kneel in adoration, in imitation of the Virgin Mary here.

Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fletcher Fund, 1946
Accession Number: 46.156.96
Image: Metropolitan Museum of Art