When I frist saw this photo, I had but one thought that came to my mind: Pontifex! A special word of thanks to a dear friend of mine (Athanasius Contra Mundum) for this wicked old photo. One can see the sophia (wisdom) of our Catholic ancestors: they understood beauty and craftsmanship and they lived it (their vocation)!
Just imagine the newly created Patriarch of Venice, arriving to take possession of the cathedra of his new See, wearing all this glory, blessing the throngs from a gondola in the canals…with a giant oil base flag painted on the high prow and stern!
2 comments:
Oh to see gloves worn by a prelate! I can never convince our bishosp to wear gloves at all! Let alone kiss his hand!
All is well - and very beautiful - but I've read several times that it is a faux pas to wear gloves with the cappa magna... though many prelates/bishops/cardinals have done so anyways. Gloves would actually be worn with court dress (all in red, but without the cappa magna, just the mozetta (and/or manteletta depending on rank) and then the gloves ought to be the same color as their socks: so a cardinal would only wear red gloves, a prelate purple ones. Technically this cardinal is wearing pontifical gloves (you can tell by the gauntlet form on back and the embroidery on the back of the hand - also that they are white (and can be green, violet, or red also - these being the colors of the pontifical vestments pontifical gloves of this sort belong to.)
Also, the shape of the 'pontifical gloves' shouldn't be so thin in the fingers... but that's the least of the concerns.
Albeit all that - it does look very nice... and this faux pas is a product of not using this sort of garments more regularly... let's bring them back (so people wear the right things! ;)
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