ABSTRACT
The fragment of embroidery from a cope displaying the name John of Thanet, depicting the Annunciation and Christ in Majesty blessing and holding a globus cruciger, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is here associated with the epony- mous treasurer of Canterbury cathedral who died in 1319. His biography published in Dart’s History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury in 1726, and his association in the later literature with the abbot of Battle of the same name, is rejected as spurious. The panel is placed in the context of the work of Westminster court artists and architects who were also called upon to work for and at Canterbury in the early 14th century. The iconography is associated with the theme of Advent and the early development of the iconography of the Salvator Mundi. Comparisons are made with the Hereford World Map and with early Romanesque images of God sending out Gabriel to the Virgin. The Madonna Master of the De Lisle Psalter is associated with the design of the embroidery, but the embroiderer(s) are identified as being those who executed the Melk Chasuble (Vienna, Museum für angewandte Kunst).
