This article presents the documentation and conservation of a pyle in the collection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. This liturgical cloth is a veil that hangs the Royal Door of the iconostasis and conceals, when needed, certain rites of the Liturgy enacted in the bema. The pyle we are dealing with is made of red velvet and embroidered with semi-precious threads in a variety of stitches, bakladota, kotsakia, kavaliki, orthi riza, all typical of the ornamental needlework of Orthodox vestments. The conservation of the hanging was mainly focused on its cleaning: stains and leftovers from previous interventions as well as the oxidized varnish from its painted parts have been removed and thus the pyle is now ready for display.
A Royal Door Pyle from the Church of Hagios Phocas in Turkey. Documentation and Conservation
30 Aug 2012
by Archaeology Newsroom
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