The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

Scenes of the Life of the Virgin, from an Altar Frontal

Scenes of the Life of the Virgin, from an Altar Frontal

1330s or 1340s
Silk, gold thread, linen; raised work, embroidery: split, stem, running, fishbone, and couching stitches
Overall: 16.8 x 127 cm (6 5/8 x 50 in.); Mounted: 27.9 x 137.2 cm (11 x 54 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1978.36
Location: not on view

Description

This rare panel originally hung above a large embroidery that decorated the front of an altar in a church. The narrative begins with the Virgin’s parents and her early life; that panel is now in the Toledo Museum of Art. Cleveland’s portion continues the story with the Annunciation of the Virgin, Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation of Christ, Christ among the Doctors, and the Assumption of the Virgin. The Death of the Virgin scene is likely missing. Painters usually sketched designs on stretched linen for embroiderers. Gold thread enriches the background and is secured in place with couching stitches in a small brick pattern.
  • Robert von Hirsch, Basel; The Robert von Hirsch Collection, Sotheby's, London, June 22, 1978, lot 266.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Six Works from Von Hirsch Collection,” August 1, 1978, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Wardwell, Anne E. "A Rare Florentine Embroidery of the Fourteenth Century." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 9 (1979): 322-33. p. 322-33 25159650
    Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. 1980. “Recent Major Acquisitions of Medieval Art by American Museums.” Gesta 19 (1): 67–77. p. 75, fig. 27
    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. 22-23, 58
  • 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).
    Draped in Splendor: Renaissance Textiles and the Church. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2003-September 26, 2004).
    Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 22-March 17, 1985).
    Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).
  • {{cite web|title=Scenes of the Life of the Virgin, from an Altar Frontal|url=false|author=|year=1330s or 1340s|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1978.36