The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude

c. 1045

Germany, Lower Saxony?, Romanesque period, 11th century

gold, cloisonné enamel, porphyry, gems, pearls, niello, wood core

Overall: 10.5 x 27.5 x 21 cm (4 1/8 x 10 13/16 x 8 1/4 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1931.462

Location: 106C Medieval Treasury

Did You Know?

On the bottom of this altar is a trap door that opened to reveal small relics of saints wrapped in silk.

Description

Commissioned by Countess Gertrude of Brunswick, this portable altar is one of the Guelph Treasure’s earliest and most sumptuous objects. The choice of white-speckled porphyry as the altar stone signals Gertrude’s worldly aspirations; an imperial color since classical antiquity, porphyry was only used by the imperial family. Historical figures of royal and imperial rank are depicted with Christ, the Virgin, apostles, and archangels along the altar’s sides, stressing the countess’s political ambitions and claim of imperial lineage for her own dynasty. The Latin inscription surrounding the altar stone reads, "Gertrude offers to Christ, to live joyfully in him, this stone that glistens with gems and gold."

1045-?
Treasury, Cathedral of St. Blaise, Brunswick
House of Brunswick-Lüneburg
?-1931
(Goldschmidt Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1931-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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Corbet, Patrick. “L'autel portatif de la comtesse Gertrude de Braunschweig (vers 1040): Tradition royale de Bourgogne et conscience aristocratique dans l'Empire des Saliens.” Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, 34e année (n°134), (1991). pp. 97-120, fig 1-5 (pl. 1-2) www.persee.fr
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 45 archive.org
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Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1931.462