The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Monstrance with the "Paten of Saint Bernward"

Monstrance with the "Paten of Saint Bernward"

c. 1180–1190
Location: not on view

Description

Designed to facilitate the display and veneration of ten relics, this sumptuous ostensorium (from the Latin ostendere, meaning "to show") is one of the most unusual reliquaries in the Guelph Treasure. Elements of contemporary Gothic architecture in miniature frame an elaborately decorated liturgical paten, the shallow disc or plate used for the elevation of the Eucharist during Mass. Fragments of the True Cross are enclosed behind a rock crystal in the gable, while other saintly relics, each wrapped in silk and identified by inscriptions, are visible only from the back. The paten is inscribed on its outer rim with the words "The bread which is broken in me is the body itself. He who receives it in good faith shall live in eternity." Another inscription surrounding the image of the enthroned Christ at the paten's center, reads, "Behold, o men, I have thus redeemed you with my death." Symbols of the four Evangelists and personifications of the four cardinal virtues complete the paten's iconographic program.
  • Treasury, Cathedral of St. Blaise, Brunswick; House of Brunswick-Lüneburg; (Goldschmidt Galleries, New York).
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 100 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 49 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. 49 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. 54 archive.org
    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. 124-125, no. 39
    Bagnoli, Martina. Treasures of heaven: saints, relics, and devotion in medieval Europe. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. Reproduced: fig. 51, p. 143
    Inglis, Erik. "Remembering and Forgetting Suger at Saint-Denis, 1151-1534: An Abbot's Reputation". Gesta 54, no. 2 (Fall 2015). Mentioned: p. 219-243; Reproduced: p. 240, fig. 9
    Beuckers, Klaus Gereon. "Istam Patenuam Fecit Sanctus Berwardus. Zum Ostensorium mit der Bernwardpatene aus dem Welfenschatz im Cleveland Museum of Art." In Typen mittelalterlicher Reliquiare zwischen Innovation und Tradition: Beiträge einer Tagung des Kunsthistorischen Instituts der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel am 22. Oktober 2016. Klaus Gereon Beuckers, and Dorothee Kemper, 211-221. Regensburg: Schnell + Steiner; Hildesheim: Bernward.Medien, 2017. Reproduced: p. 212, Abb. 67, 68
  • CMA, October 17, 2010 - January 17, 2011, Walters Art Museum February 13 - May 15, 2011, British Museum June 23 - October 9, 2011: "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe" cat no. 44
    Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 2010-January 17, 2011); The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD (February 13-May 15, 2011); The British Museum, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (June 23-October 9, 2011).
    Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).
    Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007), the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008) and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2/13/2009 - 6/7/2009): "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art"
    All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 23, 1994-January 8, 1995).
    Bernward von Hildesheim und das Zeitalter der Ottonen. Dom-Museum Hildesheim, Germany, Hildesheim, Germany (organizer) (August 15-November 28, 1993); Roemer und Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany (August 15-November 28, 1993).
    Hildesheim, Germany, Diözesanmuseum Hildesheim: Bernward von Hildesheim und das Zeitaltar der Ottonen, August 15-November 28, 1993, no. IX-28, p. 630-32, color repr. p. 631.
    Die Zeit der Staufer: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur (The Staufer Period: History, Art, Culture). Landesmuseum Württemberg Stuttgart, 70173 Stuttgart, Germany (organizer) (March 26-June 5, 1977).
    Stuttgart, Würtemburgisches Landesmuseum, Zeit der Staufer I; March-August 1977, no. 577.
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=Monstrance with the "Paten of Saint Bernward"|url=false|author=Saint Oswald Reliquary Workshop|year=c. 1180–1190|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.505