Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from a Book of Hours: The Raising of the Cross

Date

c. 1510–20

Medium

tempera and liquid gold on vellum

Culture

Germany, Nuremberg

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This finely painted miniature is the work of an artist familiar with the designs of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). Though not deriving from a known engraving or drawing, the style, composition, and especially the modeling of the figure of Christ refer to the draftsmanship and tonalities found in Dürer's works. This miniature depicts the moment the cross is raised. In the foreground, thuggish brutes struggle to bring it upright. The skull of Adam at the foot of the cross signifies that Golgotha was Adam's burial place. In the background, a vivid blue sky recedes into pink as it meets the horizon and a distant town. The inclusion of an illusionistic, trompe l'oeil border, strewn with flowers and butterflies on a gold ground, follows the tradition of Ghent and Bruges, where such borders were first developed during the 1470s and 1480s. Books of hours were devotional books popular in the Middle Ages and meant for laypeople, or those not in the clergy.

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