The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Portable Altar

Portable Altar

c. 1200–1220

Description

The principal decoration of this portable altar is carved of walrus ivory. On the long sides are traditional figures of standing apostles. On the short sides are the seated Virgin with the Magi, and Christ the Judge between the symbols of the Evangelists. The commercial ties between the Rhineland and the Norse peninsula made walrus ivory easily available to the city of Cologne, one of the most important artistic centers in medieval Germany.
  • Sir Francis Cook, Windsor
    (R. Stora, Paris, France)
    ?-1927
    (R. Durlacher Brothers, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1927-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Milliken, William M. (1927). "Two Medieval Objects from the Rhineland in the J. H. Wade Collection". The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 14(4). pp. 56-63 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 15 archive.org
    Piña, Leslie A. Furniture in History, 3000 B.C.-2000 A.D. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010. p. 25
    García de Castro Valdés, César, and Gerardo Boto Varela. El Arca Santa de Oviedo: contexto de producción, iconografía y significado. 2020, 298. Mentioned: p. 298.
  • {{cite web|title=Portable Altar|url=false|author=|year=c. 1200–1220|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1927.29