Ugolino di Nerio (Italian [Sienese], active 1317-about 1339/1349), Virgin and Child with Saints, 1317, Oil and gold on wood panel, Unframed: 122.5 x 192.5 cm, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.

J. Paul Getty Museum
Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive
310-440-7300
Los Angeles
Medieval Treasures
from the Cleveland Museum of Art
October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008

Cleveland Museum of Art houses one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of Early Christian, Byzantine and European Medieval art in the world. This remarkable collection was largely acquired over a period of 90 years and formed by two of America’s most distinguished medievalists, the museum’s second director, William Milliken, and the collection’s former curator, William Wixom. Cleveland Museum of Art’s $258 million renovation and expansion project created the opportunity for the first traveling exhibition to showcase more than 120 masterpieces in a variety of media from its medieval collection. Some of these objects will travel for the first time since they were acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Early Christian and Byzantine Art: The earliest works in the exhibition date to the Late Antique and Early Christian Period. One of the highlights from this period is a grouping of Late Roman statuettes known as the Jonah Marbles (c. 270-280). Four small-scale sculptures depict the Old Testament story of the prophet Jonah who was swallowed by a sea monster and spent three days praying in the beast’s stomach before being cast ashore — believed to be a symbolic foreshadowing of the death, three-day entombment, and resurrection of Christ. These statuettes combine the cultural traditions of the ancient Roman world with the religious imagery of the new Christian faith. Also included are important examples of Byzantine art particularly the Icon of the Virgin and Child (500s-600s), a rare surviving example of a tapestry from the early Byzantine period.

Early Medieval Art, the Guelph Treasure: The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for its collection of objects from the Guelph Treasure, one of the most important church treasuries to have survived from medieval Germany. In the 20th century, family descendants sold much of the treasure and the Cleveland Museum of Art was fortunate to be able to acquire nine of the earliest and most important objects, five of which are on display in the exhibition. Included is the Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude (c. 1045), one of the earliest and most sumptuous objects in the Guelph Treasure. The rare and intricate goldsmith’s work, the white-speckled porphyry, and the composition — historical figures of royal and imperial rank accompanied by Christ, the Virgin, apostles, and archangels — symbolize Gertrude’s worldly aspirations and claim of imperial lineage for her dynasty.

Among the highlights of Medieval Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art are five objects from the Guelph Treasure. The Guelph Treasure, named for the aristocratic family that helped build it, is one of the largest and most significant ecclesiastical treasures to survive from medieval Germany.

The early history of the treasure is linked to the Brunon family, whose male members reigned as counts of Saxony in the 11th century. In 1030 Count Liudolf I of Saxony and his wife, Gertrude, founded the church of Saint Blaise near their castle in Brunswick. After the count’s death in 1038, Gertrude donated several relics and liturgical objects to the church, creating the treasure’s core.

Successive generations of the Guelph family who succeeded the Brunons as rulers of Saxony — among them Duke Henry the Lion (1142-1195) — augmented the treasure considerably, adding to it further liturgical objects, relics, and elaborate reliquaries to house them. By the late 15th century, the treasure comprised a total of 138 objects, a number that decreased considerably over the centuries, as works were stolen, destroyed, or simply lost. In 1671 the treasure was removed from the church of Saint Blaise and, over the course of the following two and a half centuries, had several homes throughout central Europe.

In 1930 Duke Ernst August II of Brunswick-Lüneburg decided to sell the treasure to a consortium of art dealers, who, in turn, sold nearly half of the treasure’s remaining 82 objects to museums and private collectors in the United States and Europe. The Cleveland Museum of Art, under director William M. Milliken, was fortunate to acquire nine of the earliest and most important objects, five of which are on display as part of Medieval Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Commissioned by Countess Gertrude of Brunswick, the Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude (about 1045) is one of the Guelph Treasure’s most sumptuous objects. The choice of porphyry as the altar stone signals Gertrude’s worldly aspirations. Although it is actually made of red porphyry, it appears to be purple, which was an imperial color since classical antiquity and restricted to the imperial family. Historical figures of royal and imperial rank are depicted with Christ, the Virgin, apostles, and archangels along the altar’s sides, stressing the countess’ political ambitions and claim of imperial lineage for her own dynasty. The Latin inscription surrounding the altar stone reads: “Gertrude offers to Christ, to live joyfully in him, this stone that glistens with gems and gold.”

Taking the form of a clothed lower arm with an outstretched hand, Arm Reliquary of the Apostles (about 1190) from the Guelph Treasure appropriately enshrines a piece of an unidentified saint’s arm bone. Arm reliquaries like this one served as liturgical props; during religious services and processions, the clergy used these reliquaries to bless and touch the faithful, thus making the presence of the saint whose relic it contained more palpable and immediate. The series of apostle busts that decorates this arm reliquary seems to indicate that the relic it contained was that of an apostle. Duke Henry the Lion, a major patron of the church of Saint Blaise, is known to have received such relics from the Byzantine emperor Manuel I (1143-1180) on his way back from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Designed to display ten relics, the Monstrance with the “Paten of Saint Bernward”, or ostensorium (from the Latin ostendere, meaning “to show”), is one of the Guelph Treasure’s most unusual reliquaries. The main relic is a paten, a shallow plate used during Mass, allegedly made by Saint Bernward of Hildesheim (d. 1022). Bearing an image of Christ, the paten is situated at the work’s center, enclosed within a frame in which various elements of contemporary Gothic architecture are rendered in miniature. Fragments of the True Cross are enclosed in a rock crystal in the gable, while other saintly relics, each wrapped in silk and identified by inscriptions, are visible only from the back.

The Medallion with Bust of Christ (late 700s) is the oldest object in the Guelph Treasure and its original function and date of entry into the treasure remain unclear. The medallion shows Christ flanked by the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, a reference to the book of Revelation, in which Christ is described as the “Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” He is flanked by two trumpet-blowing angels that, according to Revelation, will herald Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time.

The Book-shaped Reliquary (Ivory plaque, about 1000; reliquary, about 1340) closely resembles a medieval book with a deluxe cover. Placed at its center is an ivory plaque depicting Christ’s Miracle at the Wedding at Cana, when he turned water into wine. Like the four large antique gems and cameos decorating the metalwork frame, this plaque was not made to adorn this 14th-century reliquary. Created around 1000, it was re-appropriated for this purpose centuries later and may itself have been perceived as a relic. The back of the reliquary is decorated with the engraved figures of the main patron saints of Brunswick Cathedral, namely John the Baptist, who is flanked by Saints Blaise and Thomas Becket and placed within a delicate Gothic architectural frame.

Late Medieval Art: The art of late medieval Italy is represented in the exhibition by panel paintings including Virgin and Child with Saints (before 1317), a remarkably complete altarpiece by the Sienese artist Ugolino di Nerio, and a number of richly decorated illuminated manuscripts. Significant examples of manuscript illumination are included in each section of the exhibition, including one of the finest late 14th century Florentine illuminations, Miniature from a Gradual: Initial G (about 1371-77), a page from a choral book whose illustrations are attributed to Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, a monk in the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence.

In France, from 1364 until 1477, four successive dukes of Burgundy presided over one of Europe’s most sophisticated courts. The Cleveland Museum of Art is rich in works from this period. Included in the exhibition are three alabaster sculptures of mourners that were made between 1406 and 1410 for the tomb of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. This tomb was one of the most celebrated funerary monuments of the Middle Ages, and the mourner figures that decorated the base of the tomb are extraordinary for their striking realism in representing different states of contemplation and grief. Also on view from this period, a magnificent Table Fountain (c. 1320-40) represents an important tradition of royalty and aristocracy of collecting beautiful secular objects. The most complete example to have survived the period, the fountain is admired for its extraordinary craftsmanship and technical ingenuity, which will be demonstrated in a video animation of it in operation.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is notable for its impressive collection of sculpture from late medieval Germany — a time when German artists began to adopt French Gothic aesthetic ideals and fused them with local traditions and a heightened sense of emotion. Tilman Riemenschneider mastered this style in his Saint Lawrence (c. 1502), a sculptural rendering of the deacon and martyr of the early Christian period expressing profound melancholy in his expression.

A quintessential symbol of medieval life to the modern world is the knight encased in armor. Armor and arms protected the wearer or bearer on the field of battle, as well as during tournaments, jousts, hunting, and parades where they were symbols of the wearer’s social status, wealth, and taste. This exhibition presents a small selection of armor from pinnacle moments of the 16th century, the height of the tradition before it came to an end.

Organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and curated by Holger Klein, the Robert P. Bergman Curator of Medieval Art, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with full-color reproductions of each work in the exhibition. The Getty’s presentation is curated by Antonia Boström, curator, and Jeffrey Weaver, assistant curator of sculpture and decorative arts.

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in Cleveland, Ohio, houses one of the finest encyclopedic collections in the United States. First opened to the public in 1916, the museum’s collection is renowned for its artistic quality and its breadth — more than 43,000 works of art spanning 6,000 years from ancient Egypt to the present day, all of them acquired individually, rather than as part of larger collections, and donated or funded by private sponsors.

CMA has 19 collecting areas: African Art, American Paintings and Sculpture, Art of the Americas, Chinese Art, Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts, Drawings, Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art, European Paintings and Sculpture, Greek and Roman Art, Indian and South East Asian Art, Islamic Art, Japanese Art, Korean Art, Medieval Art, Oceania, Photography, Prints, and Textiles. Each department collects extensively in its respective field; there are over 3,933 works in Asian Art, 2,850 works in Decorative Arts, 2,427 works in Medieval Art; 1,011 works in European Paintings and Sculpture; and 632 works in Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art.

The paintings collection includes masterpieces by Caravaggio, El Greco, Poussin, Rubens, David, Goya, Turner, Dali, Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, Eakins, Monet, van Gogh, and Picasso. Recently, the Museum has been particularly active in acquiring later 20th-century art, having added important works by Warhol, Pollock, Christo, Kiefer, Richter, Close, Tansey and LeWitt, among others. In addition to its renowned art collection, the CMA’s newly renovated art research library is the fourth largest in the United States, housing more than 400,000 volumes.

In 2005 the museum closed its permanent collection galleries to embark on a $258 million renovation and expansion project. This closure presented the unique opportunity to share highlights from the museum’s renowned collection with audiences around the world. Exhibitions of Impressionist and Modern Masterworks, Old Master Paintings, and this one of Medieval Highlights featuring iconic works will have toured more than 11 venues in six countries while the museum undergoes construction. This is the first time in the museum’s 90-year history that such a preponderance of masterworks from its collection will be on view outside of Cleveland. Following the tours, the works will return home to Cleveland to be installed in the renovated museum, which is scheduled to reopen in phases from mid-2008 through 2011.

Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude (c. 1045).