Cleveland Museum of Art

The Resurrection, from an Altar Frontal

Date: 1375–1400
Medium: Silk, gold and cotton thread, linen; raised work, embroidery: split, stem, and couching stitches
Culture: Italy, Florence
Department: Textiles
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 111407

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This scene of the Resurrection, along with 11 additional embroideries of the life of Christ, may have formed an altar frontal, a hanging decorating the front of an altar. Originally, expensive gold thread covered the background, but it was removed and probably melted down for its monetary value. The loss of the gold exposes a rarely seen preparatory drawing on the linen ground created by an unidentified painter. Now exposed, thick cotton thread forms scrolling vines that, when covered with radiant gold thread, would have paralleled the effect of raised plaster decoration in paintings. What does survive is of the highest quality and refinement, including more than 20 brilliant shades of silk thread.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Provenance: Fritz Iklé, Switerland | ?–1929: (Adolph Loewi [1888–1977], Los Angeles, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1929–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH