The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Reliquary Box with Scenes from the Life of John the Baptist

Reliquary Box with Scenes from the Life of John the Baptist

1300s
tempera and gold on wood
Overall: 9 x 23.5 x 9 cm (3 9/16 x 9 1/4 x 3 9/16 in.)
Gift of Bruce Ferrini in memory of Robert P. Bergman 1999.229.a
Location: 105 Byzantine

Description

John the Baptist--the first person to recognize Christ as the promised savior and the one who baptized him in the Jordan River--was one of the Byzantine Empire’s most revered saints. This box shows four scenes from the saint’s life: John’s martyrdom, Christ’s baptism, John’s birth, and the announcement of his birth to his parents. It probably once housed one of the saint’s relics; several were kept in churches and monasteries in Constantinople, including fragments of his skull and right arm and locks of his blood-clotted hair.
  • 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. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 90-91, no. 26
    Bagnoli, Martina. Treasures of heaven: saints, relics, and devotion in medieval Europe. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. Reproduced: cat. no. 52, p. 93
  • CMA, October 17, 2010 - January 17, 2011, Walters Art Museum February 13 - May 15, 2011: "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe," cat. no. 52
    Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 2010-January 17, 2011).
    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).
    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"
    Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 15-July 5, 2004).
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art (3/15/2004 - 7/4/2004): "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)"
  • {{cite web|title=Reliquary Box with Scenes from the Life of John the Baptist|url=false|author=|year=1300s|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1999.229.a