The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 16, 2024

Book-Shaped Reliquary

c. 1000

circle of The Master of the Registrum Gregorii

(German, active c. 972–1000)

Ivory: Ottonian, Lorrain; Frame: Germany, Lower Saxony, Brunswick, Gothic period, 14th century

ivory, silver: gilded, pearls, rubies, emeralds, crystals, onyx, carnelian, oak

Overall: 31.6 x 24.4 x 7.5 cm (12 7/16 x 9 5/8 x 2 15/16 in.); Part 1: 17.8 x 14 cm (7 x 5 1/2 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1930.741

Location: 106C Medieval Treasury

Description

This sumptuous object closely resembles a deluxe medieval book cover in both form and decoration. It was likely commissioned by Otto the Mild, Duke of Saxony (reigned 1318–48) around 1340. It was made to contain a leaf from each gospel and relics of the 11,000 virgins and 4 other saints. These relics were originally kept in a cavity behind the delicately carved ivory plaque depicting scenes from the Wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11). The story of Christ's first miracle is presented in three scenes. In the upper left, the Virgin informs Christ and his apostles of the lack of wine at the wedding banquet. On the right, the groom, his bride, and their guests sit behind a table, two servants offering them goblets. In the lower register, two attendants pour water into the first of six storage vessels while Christ addresses his mother and the bride. The back of the reliquary shows the engraved figures of the main patron saints of Brunswick Cathedral: placed within a delicate Gothic architectural frame, Saint John the Baptist is flanked by Saints Blaise and Thomas Becket.

Treasury, Cathedral of St. Blaise, Brunswick
House of Brunswick-Lüneburg
?-1930
(Goldschmidt Galleries, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1930-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Neumann, Wilhelm Anton, and Wenzel August Neumann. Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braundschweig-Lüneburg. Wien: Alfred Hölder, 1891. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 232-236, no. 37
Goldschmidt, Adolph, Paul Gustav Hübner, and Otto Homburger. Die Elfenbeinskulpturen. Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1914. Mentioned: Vol. 1, P. 29; Reproduced: Vol. 1, Taf. XXII
"The Great Guelph Treasure to go to America?" The Illustrated London News (January 12, 1929): 45. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 45
Falke, Otto von, Robert Schmidt, Georg Swarzenski, and Silvia M. Welsh. The Guelph Treasure. The Sacred Relics of Brunswick Cathedral Formerly in the Possession of the Ducal House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Frankfurt/Main: Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, 1930. Mentioned: P. 45-46, 83-84, 173-175; Reproduced: Pl. 6, 82-83
W. M. M. "The Acquisition of Six Objects from the Guelph Treasure for the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 9 (November 1930): 165-178, 183. Reproduced: P. 172-173; Mentioned: P. 176-177 www.jstor.org
W. M. M. “The Acquisition of Six Objects from the Guelph Treasure for the Cleveland Museum of Art: Foreword.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 9 (November 1930): 163–165. Mentioned: p. 163-165 www.jstor.org
"Guelph Treasures Sold to America: Medieval Art for Ohio." The Illustrated London News (November 29, 1930): 982. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 982
Milliken, William M. "The Guelph Treasure." The American Magazine of Art 22, no. 3 (March 1931): 163-72. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 172-173 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. 98 archive.org
Foreville, Raymonde. Le Jubilé de Saint Thomas Becket: du XIIIe au XVe siècle, 1220-1470, Etude et Documents. Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1958. Reproduced: Pl. 12
"Gothic Art 1360-1440." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 7 (September 1963): 174-215. Mentioned: P. 208, no. 53 www.jstor.org
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
Swarzenski, Hanns. Monuments of Romanesque Art: The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe. London: Faber, 1967. Mentioned: P. 39, no. 14; reproduced: Pl. 14, fig. 33
Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art,1967. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 83
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
Munro, Thomas. Form and Style in the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetic Morphology. Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1970. Reproduced: Pl. 17
Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. [Harmondsworth, Eng.]: Penguin Books, 1972. Mentioned: P. 81, P. 120, P. 291, n. 6; Reproduced: Pl. 115
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
Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg, and B. A. R. Carter. Piero Della Francesca's Baptism of Christ. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 84-85, fig. 39
James Murphy, "Ottonian or Romanesque: Two Ivory Carvings from Liège," Athanor I (1981): 13-18. Mentioned: P. 13-14; Reproduced: P. 16, fig. 1
De Winter, Patrick M. "The Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 1 (March 1985): 2-160. Reproduced: P. 23-24, figs. 17,18, P. 119, fig. 149, P. 121, fig. 151; Mentioned: P. 21-22, P. 118-120, P. 124, P. 133-134, P. 141, no. 45, P. 146, n.11-12, P. 154, n. 85 www.jstor.org
Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 118-119, pl. 162
Boockmann, Andrea. Die verlorenen Teile des 'Welfenschätzes': eine Übersicht anhand des Reliquienverzeichnisses von 1482 der Stiftskirche St. Blasius in Braunschweig. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997. Mentioned: P. 51, P. 129, n.7, P. 157
Little, Charles T. "Again the Cleveland Book-Shaped Reliquary." In Der Welfenschatz und sein Umkreis. Joachim Ehlers, and Dietrich Kötzsche, ed., 77-92. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1998. Mentioned: P. 77-92; Reproduced: Taf. 10, P. 78, 80-81, 83, figs. 1-4fig. 1
Nilgen, Ursula. "Thomas Beckett und Braunschweig." In Der Welfenschatz und sein Umkreis. Joachim Ehlers, and Dietrich Kötzsche, ed., 219-242. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1998. Mentioned: P. 238-240; Reproduced: Taf. 10, P. 239, abb. 16
Fritz, Johann Michael. "Das Plenar Ottos des Milden und Verwandte Werke." In Der Welfenschatz und sein Umkreis. Joachim Ehlers, and Dietrich Kötzsche, ed., 369-385. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1998. Mentioned: P. 379; Reproduced: Taf. 10, P. 377, abb. 7
Brandt, Michael. Abglanz des Himmels: Romanik in Hildesheim : Katalog zur Ausstellung des Dom-Museums Hildesheim, Hildesheim 2001. Regensburg: Schnell + Steiner, 2001. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 141-142, abb. 49
Klein, Holger A. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 126-127, no. 40
Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 118-119, no. 37
Cambier, Helene. "L'art de l'Ivoire en Question. A Propos de la Production Mosane aux XIe et XIIe Siecles." Les Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa 43 (2012): 165-70. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 169, figs. 7 and 8
Inglis, Erik. "Expertise, Artifacts, and Time in the 1534 Inventory of the St-Denis Treasury." The Art Bulletin 98, no.1 (March 2016): [14]-42 Reproduced: p. 23, fig. 11
Köllermann, Antje-Fee, and Christine Unsinn. Die Goldene Tafel aus Lüneburg: Akten des wissenschaftlichen Kolloqiums - Ergebnisband des Forschungsprojektes.
Petersberg : Michael Imhof Verlag, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 50, fig. 17
Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800-1500. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 15, 2021-January 23, 2022) https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/imperial-splendor.
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).
All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 23, 1994-January 8, 1995).
Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art (1991), p. no. 91.
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).
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Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.741