The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 22, 2025

Transenna Panel

700s–800s

Lombardic, Italy, Rome, Migration period, 8th-9th Century

marble
Overall: 83.9 x 110.2 cm (33 1/16 x 43 3/8 in.)
General Income Fund 1921.423
Location: 106A Migration Period & Coptic

Description

In Christian architecture a transenna is an openwork screen of stone or metal enclosing a shrine. These transenna elements were found in Rome; the posts were said to have been excavated on the Coelian Hill and may have originally formed part of the transenna of the Church of San Saba. The Lombards were an ancient Germanic-speaking tribe that settled in Italy after 568. Their artistic tradition was originally centered on small objects of personal adornment like buckles and brooches. After occupying Italy, the Lombards found themselves in contact with large-scale sculpture of classical and early Christian origin that, by the end of the 700s, they had learned to adopt and imitate, as seen here.
  • –1920
    Harold Woodbury Parsons
    1920
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Transenna Panel|url=false|author=|year=700s–800s|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1921.423