The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Altarpiece with The Passion of Christ

c. 1440s

Master of the Schlägl Altarpiece

(German)

Framed: 88.9 x 157.5 x 8.3 cm (35 x 62 x 3 1/4 in.); Unframed: 74.3 x 69.8 cm (29 1/4 x 27 1/2 in.); Part 1: 84.9 x 81.4 x 8.3 cm (33 7/16 x 32 1/16 x 3 1/4 in.); Part 2: 84.6 x 152.2 x 8.3 cm (33 5/16 x 59 15/16 x 3 1/4 in.); Part 3: 84.6 x 78.7 x 8.3 cm (33 5/16 x 31 x 3 1/4 in.); Panel: 36.2 x 35 cm (14 1/4 x 13 3/4 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1951.453

Location: 111 German and Austrian Gothic

Did You Know?

In 2012 the museum's conservation department created a new frame that was stylistically more appropriate for this altarpiece.

Description

The visual focus of this altarpiece is the suffering and death of Christ on the cross. So-called Passion cycles in art include the events leading up to and following the Crucifixion, not only as single subjects but as scenes meant to be read in sequence. Passion cycles were promoted by the two great teaching orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, for whom this subject represented the main religious drama of their churches, and also by the German mystics who advocated private contemplation on the humanity and suffering of Christ. The original context for this altarpiece remains unknown, but it was probably made for a religious institution in Westphalia in the Rhine Valley. During the 1870s it was given to the Abbey of Schlägl, near Linz in Upper Austria, from which both altarpiece and artist take their names. The altarpiece is not preserved today in its original format, and some of the individual scenes are missing. Scholars continue to debate the original number of scenes and their sequencing; nine of the original panels have survived.

-1930s
Schlägl Abbey, Austria
-1951
(Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1951-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Tietze, Hans "Ein Passionszyklus im Stift Schlägl," Jahrbuch des kunsthistorischen Instituts der Zentralkommission für Denkmalpflege VII (1913). pp. 173-81, 187
Heise, Carl Georg. Norddeutsche malerei: Studien zur ihrer Entwicklungsgeschichte im 15. [i.e. fünfzehnten] Jahrhundert von Köln bis Hamburg. Leipzig: K. Wolff, 1918. pp. 68-69, fig. 62
Hugelschofer, Walter "Der Hochaltar von 1457 des Klosters Marienfeld in Westfalen," Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst n.s. XXXVI (1926-1927). p. 184
Hainisch, Erwin "Schlagl, 2 in Georg Dehio," Hanbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmaler II: Osterreich (Vienna and Berlin, 1935). p. 584
Sommer, Johannes "Johann Koerbecke, der Meister des Marienfelder Altares von 1457," Westfalen XVI (1937). p. 42
Stange, Alfred. Deutsche Malerei der Gotik 3. München u.a: Dt. Kunstverl, 1938. figs. 273-74
Busch, Harald. Meister des Nordens; die Altniederdeutsche Malerei, 1450-1550. Hamburg: Ellermann, 1943. p. 66
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Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart Bd. 37. Bd. 37. 1950. pp. 301-02
Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster, and Paul Pieper. Westfälische Maler der Spätgotik 1440-1490: [Ausstellung] Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster Westfalen, 20. Juni-30. September 1952. Münster: Das Museum, 1952. cat nos. 76-84
Francis, Henry S. “The Schlaegl Altarpiece.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 8 (1952). pp. 210-211 www.jstor.org
Stange, Alfred. Deutsche Malerei der Gotik: Bd 6 Nordwestdeutschland in der Zeit von 1450 bis 1515. Munchen: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1954. pp. 75-6
Francis, Henry S. "Early German Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art," American-German Review XXI/2 (1954-55). p. 7
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 455 archive.org
Rensing, Theodor. Der Meister von Schöppingen. [München]: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1959. p. 36-37
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 67 archive.org
Stange, Alfred. Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. (München): Bruckmann, 1967. p. 178, no. 579
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 67 archive.org
Puttfarken, Thomas. Meister Francke und die Kunst um 1400. Ausstellung zur Jahrhundert-Feier der Hamburger Kunsthalle, 30. Aug. bis 19. Okt. 1969. (Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1969. pp. 37-38
Musper, H. Theodor. Altdeutsche Malerei. [Köln]: M. DuMont Schauberg, 1970. p. 49-50, repr. no. 39
Cleveland Museum of Art. European Paintings Before 1500. Cleveland: The Museum, 1974. . pp. 31-33, color plate VIII, cat no. 11
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 75 archive.org
Bologna, Ferdinando. Napoli e le rotte mediterranee della pittura: da Alfonso il Magnanimo a Ferdinando il Cattolico. Napoli: Società napoletana di storia patria, 1978. figs. 47-49
Schlagler gemaldekatalog: geschichte der schlager gemaldesammlung und bildergalerie, verzeichnis der vorhandenen gemalde. [LINZ, AUSTRIA]: [STIFT SCHLAGL], 1987. pp. 49-51
Mellinkoff, Ruth. Outcasts: Signs of Otherness in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. vol 2, pl. IX.24
Brunet, Jacqueline, Gennaro Toscano, and Sylvie Béguin. Les Granvelle et l'Italie au XVIe siècle: le mécénat d'une famille : actes du colloque international. Besançon: Cêtre, 1996. p. 32-33, repr. fig. 9, p. 35
Be, Kenneth, "The Case of the Altered Altarpiece", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 03, March 2004 Mentioned & reproduced: cover, p. 4-5 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. cat. no. 88, p. 238-9
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. 256, repr. p. 257-59, no. 96
Fliegel, Stephen N., and Stephen N. Fliegel. A Higher Contemplation: Sacred Meaning in the Christian Art of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2012. p. 84, fig. 65
Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. Reproduced: p. 47 archive.org
Westfälische Maler der Spätgotik 1440-1490, Landesmuseum, Munster, German (June 20 - September30, 1952).
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Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.453