The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Raising of the Cross

Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Raising of the Cross

c. 1510–20
tempera and liquid gold on vellum
Each leaf: 18.7 x 13.4 cm (7 3/8 x 5 1/4 in.)
The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2006.14
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Books of hours were devotional books popular in the Middle Ages and meant for laypeople, or those not in the clergy.

Description

This finely painted miniature is the work of an artist familiar with the designs of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). Though not deriving from a known engraving or drawing, the style, composition, and especially the modeling of the figure of Christ refer to the draftsmanship and tonalities found in Dürer's works. This miniature depicts the moment the cross is raised. In the foreground, thuggish brutes struggle to bring it upright. The skull of Adam at the foot of the cross signifies that Golgotha was Adam's burial place. In the background, a vivid blue sky recedes into pink as it meets the horizon and a distant town. The inclusion of an illusionistic, trompe l'oeil border, strewn with flowers and butterflies on a gold ground, follows the tradition of Ghent and Bruges, where such borders were first developed during the 1470s and 1480s.
  • Esther Rosenbaum (d. 1980), Chicago, IL
    November 16, 1975
    [Sale: Swann's New York, NY, 11/16/1975, lot 207]
    1975-
    [Roger S. Wieck, New York, NY, sold to Bruce Ferrini]
    [Bruce Ferrini, Akron, OH, sold to Jeanne Miles Blackburn]
    -2006
    Jeanne Miles Blackburn, North Carolina & Florida, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2006-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Fliegel, Stephen N. The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 70, cat. no. 68 archive.org
  • The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours (Gallery 115 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26, 2022-July 30, 2023).
    The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection of Manuscript Illuminations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 1999-February 27, 2000).
  • {{cite web|title=Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Raising of the Cross|url=false|author=|year=c. 1510–20|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2006.14