Artwork Page for Altar Cloth

Details / Information for Altar Cloth

Altar Cloth

c. 1350

Germany, Altenberg on the Lahn, Premonstratensian Convent, 14th century

Medium
embroidery: linen
Measurements
Overall: 154.3 x 374.5 cm (60 3/4 x 147 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1948.352
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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When lit from behind, the previously hidden details emerge and the complex design becomes evident.

Description

This large, embroidered altar cloth is one of the rarest, most important medieval church furnishings in existence. It was stitched by nuns in the Premonstratensian Convent in Altenberg on the Lahn River, north of Frankfurt, Germany, and was used to cover the church’s high altar in the weeks
leading up to Easter. The cloth is an example of linen embroidery, a specialty of German nuns in the later Middle Ages.
The Altenberg monastery church once had valuable furnishings; the high altar retable (a decorated frame with sculptures and paintings on the top of an altar) has survived, the main parts of which are now in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
A rectangular white altar cloth features a white symmetrical embroidered pattern and white, fine fringe on the short sides. Three rows of five quatrefoils, a shape like a four-petal flower outline, extend across with the largest quatrefoil in the center, silhouetting a crucifixion scene. Each quatrefoil has an inner outline containing a biblical scene, and an outer band containing identifying inscriptions in Gothic letters. Even more scenes fill in the gaps between the quatrefoils.

Altar Cloth

c. 1350

Germany, Altenberg on the Lahn, Premonstratensian Convent, 14th century

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