The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Altar Cloth

Altar Cloth

c. 1350
embroidery: linen
Overall: 154.3 x 374.5 cm (60 3/4 x 147 7/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1948.352
Location: 115 Manuscripts & Textiles

Did You Know?

When lit from behind, the previously hidden details emerge and the complex design becomes evident.

Description

This large, embroidered altar cloth is one of the rarest, most important medieval church furnishings in existence. It was stitched by nuns in the Premonstratensian Convent in Altenberg on the Lahn River, north of Frankfurt, Germany, and was used to cover the church’s high altar in the weeks
leading up to Easter. The cloth is an example of linen embroidery, a specialty of German nuns in the later Middle Ages.
The Altenberg monastery church once had valuable furnishings; the high altar retable (a decorated frame with sculptures and paintings on the top of an altar) has survived, the main parts of which are now in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
  • c. 1350
    Nuns of Altenberg on the Lahn, Hesse, Germany
    1806
    Duke of Solms-Braunfels
    Ikle Collection, Switzerland, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1948-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Farcy, Louis de. La Broderie, du XI siècle jusqu'à nos jours, d'après des specimens authentiques et les anciens inventaires. 1er (et 2) supplément. 1er (et 2) supplément. Angers: Belhomme, 1900. p. 49
    Lehnert, Georg, W. Behncke, E. W. Braun, Moriz Dreger, Otto von Falke, J. Folnesics, Otto Kümmel, Erich Pernice, and Georg Swarzenski. Illustrierte geschichte des Kunstgewerbes. Berlin: M. Oldenbourg, 1907. vol. 1, p. 343
    Der Grosse Brockhaus. Grosse Brockhaus. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1930. p. 450
    Kurth, B., "Genres of European Embroidery in the Middle Ages," Ciba Review no. 5 (December 1945). p. 1810
    Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Romanesque Lenten Cloth from Germany." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 1 (1953) pp. 75-5 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 144-145 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and William Mathewson Milliken. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1958. p. 11
    Embroidery, XI (Spring 1960). pp. 8-10
    Wilckens, Leonie von, "Hessische Leinenstickerein des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts," Anzeiger des Germanischen National-Museums (1954-59). p. 15, fig. 8 journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
    Bober, Harry. "Medieval Art at Cleveland," Apollo (Dec. 1963).
    Wagner, Margarete. Sakrale Weisstickereien des Mittelalters. Esslingen: Burgbücherei W. Schneider, 1963. pp. 26-27, fig. 22-24
    Schuette, Marie, and Sigrid Müller-Christensen. The Art of Embroidery. London: Thames and Hudson, 1964. [[. 98-99, fig. 154-57
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 52 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 53 archive.org
    Clabburn, Pamela, and Helene Von Rosenstiel. The Needleworker's Dictionary. New York: Morrow, 1976. p. 159
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 61 archive.org
    Dean, Beryl. Embroidery in Religion and Ceremonial. London: Batsford, 1981. figs. 3-4
    Aldenkirchen, J., "Früh-mittelalterliche Leinen-Stickereien," Jahrbücher des Vereins Von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande, LXXIX (Bonn, Universitätsdruckerei, 1985). pp. 260-65
    Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. pp. 24-5
    Dawson, Barbara. White Work: Embroidery. London: Batsford, 1987. Contents Page
    Fliegel, Stephen N. Resplendent Faith: Liturgical Treasuries of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2009. p. 71, fig. 60
    Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. p. 120-1
    Seeberg, Stefanie. 2012. "Women As Makers of Church Decoration: Illustrated Textiles at the Monasteries of Altenberg/Lahn, Rupertsberg, and Heiningen (13th - 14th C.)". In Martin, Therese, ed. Reassessing the Roles of Women As 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture. Visualising the Middle Ages, V. 7, 1-2. Leiden: Brill, 2012. vol. 1, chapter 10, p. 355-391
    Seeberg, Stefanie. Textile Bildwerke im Kirchenraum: Leinenstickereien im Kontext mittelalterlicher Raumausstattungen aus dem Prämonstratenserinnenkloster Altenberg/Lahn. 2014. p. 214-217
    Sander, Jochen. Schaufenster des Himmels: der Altenberger Altar und seine Bildausstattung = Heaven on display : the Altenberg altar and its imagery. 2016.
  • Liturgical Textiles from Late Medieval Germany (Gallery 115 rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 11, 2023-August 4, 2024).
    Visions of the Divine: Textiles and Manuscripts from Medieval Germany (Manuscript and Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 14, 2016-December 4, 2017).
  • {{cite web|title=Altar Cloth|url=false|author=|year=c. 1350|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1948.352