By: Pim Arts, Richard de Beer, Dirk Jan Schoon, Marike van Roon, René Lugtigheid, Madelief Hohé, Susan North, Ria Cooreman

Traditionally, priest's vestments have been pre-eminently the objects on which the most attention and money was spent in a church. They were, and often still are, of a dazzling and heavenly beauty.

When the survival of the Catholic Church was threatened during the Republic and Catholic shelter churches were not allowed to be recognisable from the street, what was not allowed to be shown on the outside was compensated for on the inside. In the 17th century, the robes became gold, silver and silk expressions of silent resistance, but also of a feminist agenda of the makers. Behind closed doors, everything was literally and figuratively pulled out to propagate the Catholic faith. Worn ball gowns with colourful flowered French, English and Chinese fashion fabrics were donated to the church by rich, pious women so that beautiful and special church vestments could be made from them. So it could easily happen that a priest in a pink robe with flowers stood at the altar.

Dutch and English

22 x 28 cm
224 pages
Approx. 200 illustrations
Luxury paperback
NL ISBN 9789462625075 bestel
ENG ISBN 9789462625082
€ 34,95

Exhibition
13 October 2023 to 21 January 2024, Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht