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Additional Views

Aug 11, 2005

Nov 29, 2005

Nov 19, 2009

Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude

c. 1045

Part of a set. See all set records

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."

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Inscriptions

Inscription

GERDRVDIS XPO FELIX VT | VIVAT IN IPSO OBTVLIT HVNC LAPIDEM GEMMIS | AVROQ NITENTEM

Inscription

SIGISMVNDVS, CONSTANTIVS, SANCTA CRVX, SCA ELENA, SCA ADALHEIT

Inscription Translation

Sigismund, Constantine, True Cross, Saint Helena, Saint Adelheid

Inscription Remark

Short Side, Right of Front,

Provenance

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

Citations

Milliken, William M. "The Gertrudis Altar and Two Crosses." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 18, no. 2 (1931). pp. 31-33 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 95 archive.org

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

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 45 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 50 archive.org

De Winter, Patrick M. "The Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 1 (1985). pp. 30, 36-37, 39-40, 41, 43, 47, 67, 74, 117, 134-136, 139 no. 4, no. 22, figs. 38-39; color plates V-IX www.jstor.org

Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. pp. 135-137, 139

Luckhardt, Jochen, and Franz Niehoff. Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235 : Katalog der Ausstellung, Braunschweig 1995. München: Hirmer, 1995. no. 120, p. 226; no. 121, p. 227; no. 386, p. 513

Boockmann, Andrea. Die verlorenen Teile des 'Welfenschätzes': eine Übersicht anhand des Reliquienverzeichnisses von 1482 der Stiftskirche St. Blasius in Braunschweig. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997. pp. 30, 54, 56, 70, 75, 77, 101, 130f

Ehlers, Joachim, and Dietrich Kötzsche. Der Welfenschatz und sein Umkreis. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1998. p. 55; abb. 6, p. 56; abb. 5, p. 56; abb. 6, 56; abb. 7, p. 295.

Budde, Michael. Altare portatile: Kompendium der Tragaltäre des Mittelalters, 600-1600. Münster/Westf: Werne a.d. Lippe, 1998. Vol. I p 168; Vol. II pp 90-98

Colloque international du Centre d'études médiévales, Patrick Corbet, Monique Goullet, Dominique Iogna-Prat, Chantal Palluet, and Daniel Russo. Adélaïde de Bourgogne: genèse et représentations d'une sainteté impériale. Paris: Editions de l'Université de Dijon, 2002. p. 157, fig. 4

Athanor XVIII. Florida State University Department of Art History, vol. 18, (2000). p. 15, fig. 7

Brüsch, Tania. Die Brunonen, ihre Grafschaften und die sächsische Geschichte: Herrschaftsbildung und Adelsbewusstsein im 11. Jahrhundert. Husum: Matthiesen Verlag, 2000. pp 88-92

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: no. 19, p. 24

Peter, Michael. Der Gertrudistragaltar aus dem Welfenschatz: eine stilgeschichtliche Untersuchung. Mainz: Von Zabern, 2001. Fig. 1, 2, p. 22, Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7-17, pp. 22-29

Stiegemann, Christoph, and Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen. Schatzkunst am Aufgang der Romanik: der Paderborner Dom-Tragaltar und sein Umkreis. München: Hirmer, 2006. p. 82, fig. 2

Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 114, repr. p. 115-116, no. 36

Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 116-118, no. 36

Palazzo, Eric. L'espace rituel et le sacré dans le Christianisme: la liturgie de l'autel portatif dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen Âge. Turnhout: Brepols, 2008. pp. 158, 163, 165-66, 179

Fliegel, Stephen N. Resplendent Faith: Liturgical Treasuries of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2009. pp. 18, fig. 11

Klein, Holger A. "Himmlische Schatze." das munster (Jan. 2010). p. 376, fig. 5

Bagnoli, Martina. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. Reproduced: fig. 42, p.86

Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 88-89

Hahn, Cynthia J. Strange Beauty: Issues in the Making and Meaning of Reliquaries, 400-Circa 1204. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012. p. 97, fig. 44

Smith, Julia M. H. Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval West (C. 700-1200). Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2012. p. 147, fig. 1

Robinson, James, Lloyd De Beer, and Anna Harnden. Matter of Faith: An Interdisciplinary Study of Relics and Relic Veneration in the Medieval Period. 2014. pp. 137-142

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 264-265

Gearhart, Heidi C. Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. Reproduced: color plate 10; p. 109, fig, 24; p. 110, fig. 25: Mentioned: p. 111-113

Mikolic, Amanda. Worshiping in Place Through Art: The Hidden Gems of the Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude. The Cleveland Museum of Art, CMA Thinker on Medium, 2020. medium.com

García de Castro Valdés, César, and Gerardo Boto Varela. El Arca Santa de Oviedo: contexto de producción, iconografía y significado. 2020, 124. Mentioned: p. 124 and 298.

Fehlmann, Marc, Michael Matzke and Sabine Söll-Tauchert. Gold & Ruhm: Kunst und Macht unter Kaiser Heinrich II. Basel; München: Historisches Museum Basel; Hirmer, 2019. Mentioned & reproduced: pp. 265-265, cat.89

Exhibition history

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

Gold & Glory: Gifts for Eternity. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland (October 11, 2019-January 19, 2020).

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{{cite web|title=Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1931.462|year=c. 1045|access-date=07 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude

Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude

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

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