Location

106B Romanesque & Gothic Sculpture

Description

By the 11th century, monumental crucifixes carved from wood and painted were a common feature of church interiors. Placed on or suspended above the main altar, they reminded viewers of Christ’s sacrifice on behalf of mankind at the Crucifixion, an event reenacted every time Mass was celebrated on the altar below. Crucifixes also invited prayer and meditation on Christ’s role as Redeemer. This fragmentary but finely carved corpus, or body of Christ, once belonged to such a crucifix.

Provenance

1925-1949

Adolf Stoclet (1871-1949), Belgium

1979

(Sotheby's, London, 13 December 1979, lot 45)

1979-1980

(Cyril Humphries, Ltd., London sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1980-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Cahn, Walter, and Linda Seidel. Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections. New York: B. Franklin, 1978. V. II, No. B. III 1, p. 147-48

Sotheby's (Firm). Medieval Works of Art; Late Gothic Wood Sculpture; Renaissance Bronzes; a Collection of Caskets, Locks and Keys. 1979. p. 16, No. 45

Parke-Bernet Galleries, and Sotheby & Co. (London, England). Art at Auction: The Year at Sotheby Parke Bernet 1979-80 ; Two Hundred and Forty-Sixth Season. London: Published by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd. for Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, 1980. p. 243

Country Life. London: Country Life, Ltd, (February 7, 1980). p. 351, Fig. 5-A

Verdier, Philippe. "A Romanesque Corpus." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 3 (1981). pp. 67-74 www.jstor.org

Solms, E. de. Christs en croix romans. Saint-Léger-Vauban (France): Zodiaque, 1995. p. 183. No. 76, p. 184, No. 72

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. p. 164, Cat. No. 57

Cleveland Museum of Art, Renate Eikelmann, and Holger A. Klein. The Cleveland Museum of Art Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550 : [die Publikation erscheint zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung im Bayerischen Nationalmuseum, München, 11. Mai bis 16. September 2007; die Ausstellung wird anschließend vom 30. Oktober 2007 bis zum 20. Januar 2008 unter dem Titel "Sacred gifts and worldly treasures: Medieval masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art" im J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, gezeigt]. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 152-53, No. 52

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. 87, fig. 68

Cren, Nadia Bertoni. "Le Cercle d'Autun. Les Sources de la Statuaire dans la Bourgogne Romane," Bulletin du Centre d'etudes medievales d'Auxerre (BUCEMA) 17.1 (2013) pp. 11-13

Exhibition history

Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007), the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008) and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2/13/2009 - 6/7/2009): "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art"

Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 23-July 19, 1981).

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).

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Corpus from a Crucifix

France, Burgundy, Autun?, 12th century

Location

Description