The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Miniature from a Mariegola: The Flagellation

c. 1365–75

Lorenzo Veneziano

(Italian)

and Workshop

Italy, Venice
tempera and gold on parchment
Sheet: 29.5 x 21 cm (11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1950.374
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Although dark in appearance now, the column in the center was originally painted to resemble green marble.

Description

This miniature shows a moment of Christ’s Passion. After receiving his death sentence, Jesus was bound to a column, mocked, and tortured. While two fearsome henchmen beat Jesus with rods, he seems to look directly at the viewer and make a connection with them. The leaf comes from a rule book of a Venetian scuole, a mariegola. Scuole were guilds and lay associations mainly for religious purposes but also for trades and crafts. Five of them were associations of flagellants, a radical movement that became particularly popular since the 1350s in the wake of the Black Death. Christ’s physical suffering served as their model for self-chastisement.
  • ?-1950
    Erardo Aeschlimann, Milan, Italy, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1950-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Milliken, William M. "A Venetian Illuminated Miniature." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 38, no. 10 (1951). pp. 230-35 www.jstor.org
    Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts. Loan Exhibition, Nov. 25, 1953 - Jan. 9, 1954. 1953.
    Meiss, Millard. "The Case of the Frick Flagellation." The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 19/20 (1956). p. 56, notes 35 & 38 www.jstor.org
    Pallucchini, Rodolfo. La pittura veneziana del Trecento. Venezia: Istituto per la collaborazione culturale, 1964. p. 217, fig. 679
    Todini, Filippo, and Milvia Bollati. Una collezione di miniature italiane: dal Duecento al Cinquecento : catalogo. Milano: Studio Nella Longari, 1993. p. 7
    Guarnieri, Cristina, and Lorenzo Veneziano. Lorenzo Veneziano. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano: Silvana, 2006.
    Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Mentioned: p. 84-87; Reproduced: p. 85
    Humphrey, Lyle. La miniatura per le confraternite e le arti veneziane: mariegole dal 1260 al 1460. Sommacampagna - Verona: Cierre edizioni; [Venice]: Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 2015. Reproduced: Tav. XIIb; Mention: P. 206-212, no. 12.2
    Lutz, Gerhard. “Art in the Time of the Black Death.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1: (Winter 2021): 8. Reproduced: P. 8.
  • Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    Venetian Decorative Arts. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 2, 1956-January 9, 1957).
    Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (Nov. 24, 1953-January 16, 1954).
  • {{cite web|title=Miniature from a Mariegola: The Flagellation|url=false|author=Lorenzo Veneziano, Workshop|year=c. 1365–75|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1950.374