The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

The Mystical Grapes

c. 1500

Flanders, possibly Bruges

Wool, silk, silver thread; tapestry weave
Overall: 79 x 75.9 cm (31 1/8 x 29 7/8 in.); Framed: 102.2 x 99.7 cm (40 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1973.77
Location: 101B Prints & Drawings

Did You Know?

Tapestries were among the most expensive material goods in the medieval and early modern periods. Nevertheless, they were ubiquitous among the upper echelons of society who used them to decorate and warm their drafty living spaces.

Description

This tapestry illustrates the symbolic relationship between wine and Christ’s blood that forms a central belief of the Catholic faith. Flanked by the Virgin Mary and Joseph, the Christ child squeezes grapes into a chalice, symbolizing the gift of his blood for the redemption of humankind. With its small scale, luxurious metallic threads, and extraordinary detail, the tapestry was intended to aid in private devotion. Locking eyes with the infant Christ, the fruit of the Virgin’s womb (represented by the pomegranate in the glass), the user would contemplate Christ’s fate.
  • Spitzer Collection; Economas Collection; Mortimer Schiff Collection; (Spencer A. Samuels & Co., Ltd.)
  • Wardwell, Anne E. "The Mystical Grapes, a Devotional Tapestry." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 1 (1975): 17-23. p. 17-23 25152571.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 81 archive.org
    Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. p. 28, 30-31, 58
    Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Adolph S. Cavallo. Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. p. 337, fig. 337
    Cleland, Elizabeth. "Small-Scale Devotional Tapestries—Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Part 2: The “Mystic Grapes Group”." Studies in the Decorative Arts 16, no. 2 (2009): 141-64. p. 141-64 www.jstor.org
  • In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2025-January 11, 2026).
    The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (February 26-May 14, 2023).
    Art of Embroidery in Late Medieval Europe (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 2020-April 11, 2021).
    Only for Beauty? (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 2014-December 7, 2015).
    Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 22-March 17, 1985).
  • {{cite web|title=The Mystical Grapes|url=false|author=|year=c. 1500|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1973.77