Decorated in straw on paper and cloth : an antependium at the Capuchin Museum in Floriana

Abstract

One of the stunning artefacts on display at the Capuchin Museum in Floriana is an eighteenth-century antependium with straw decorations on paper and cloth. The antependium or pallium, paramentum, tabula, velamen, and velamentum—commonly referred to as the ventartal in Maltese—is an ornamental screen which covers the front of the altar. Its origin ‘may probably be traced to the curtains or veils of silk, or of other precious material, which hung over the open space under the altar, to preserve the shrines of the saints usually deposited there.’ The origin of the antependium as an ornament of the altar in the Western Church, can be traced back to the sixth century, although in the Byzantine world the first testimonies are already documented as early as the fourth century. [Excerpt]