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cmamedieval.bsky.social
CMA: Medieval Art
@cmamedieval.bsky.social
710 followers 3 following 2.3K posts
Sharing public domain works from the Medieval Art department of
the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Automated thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
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Reposted by CMA: Medieval Art
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Hampstead Heath https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.68
Hampstead Heath
November 28, 2025 at 9:03 AM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Single Leaf Excised from a Gospel Book: The Nativity (recto) and St. Matthew (verso) https://clevelandart.org/art/1933.445
This leaf comes from a volume that is preserved in the Trier Cathedral Library in Germany (Codex 142).
December 11, 2025 at 4:47 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Historiated Initial (E) Excised from an Antiphonary: Risen Christ in the Tomb https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.804
Historiated Initial (E) Excised from an Antiphonary: Risen Christ in the Tomb
December 11, 2025 at 3:38 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Leaf from a Psalter and Prayerbook: Ornamental Border with Pea Vines and a Girl Kneading Bread (recto) and Ornamental Boarder with Carnations, a Thistle, and a Cook Ladling Soup (verso) (1 of 3 Excised Leaves) https://clevelandart.org/art/1999.136
This leaf represent the charming, intricate decoration found throughout the parent volume, its leaves now dispersed. Virtually every border, recto and verso, was decorated with liquid gold and highlighted with a variety of flowers, fruits, and vegetables-carnations, thistles, roses, violets, peas, melons-as well as cornucopias, satyrs, masks, insects, birds, etc. The decoration is particularly charming because of the little vignettes within the borders. These motifs depict a girl kneading bread, a cook ladling soup, a goose nibbling grapes off a vine, and a satyr with a horn. Such details would have been a sumptuous delight to the original owner. This was a highly personalized volume, apparently written and illuminated in North Germany. The prominent mention of St. Godehard (died 1038), Bishop of Hildesheim in the original manuscript suggests that it was produced in that city.
December 11, 2025 at 2:46 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Mouton d'Or of King Jean le Bon of France, 1350-1364 (obverse) https://clevelandart.org/art/1964.372.a
Because this gold coin represents the Paschal Lamb, a symbol of Christ, on one of its faces, it is known as a "Golden Sheep"--Mouton d'Or in French.
December 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Panel https://clevelandart.org/art/1919.592.2
Panel
December 11, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by CMA: Medieval Art
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Net Weight, 1981
https://botfrens.com/collections/27/contents/5022
Net Weight
November 28, 2025 at 12:49 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain: Fol. 220v https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.256.220.b
This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies. This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
December 10, 2025 at 7:21 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Book of Hours (Use of Rouen): fol. 64r, Adoration of the Magi https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.227.64.a
Book of Hours (Use of Rouen): fol. 64r, Adoration of the Magi
December 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Book of Hours (Use of Rouen): fol. 34r https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.227.34.a
Book of Hours (Use of Rouen): fol. 34r
December 10, 2025 at 4:05 PM
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Tab https://clevelandart.org/art/1919.1009.b
Tab
December 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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Powder Flask https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.676
Powder flasks are small, portable containers designed to hold gunpowder. From the 1400s to the 1800s, powder flasks were indispensable for charging and priming firearms of all types. Without powder flasks firearms were of little use to their owners. Many highly decorated flasks rank as works of art. During the 1500s, they were frequently decorated with images of famous historical figures. Here the figures of the Judgment of Paris come from Greek antiquity.
December 10, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by CMA: Medieval Art
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Nono Lebasque, 1908
https://botfrens.com/collections/48/contents/15730
Nono Lebasque
November 26, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by CMA: Medieval Art
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Virgin and Child with John the Baptist and Angels https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.792
Virgin and Child with John the Baptist and Angels
November 26, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by CMA: Medieval Art
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Half-Figure https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.457
This torso is believed to be carved in the style of the Kusu people, closely related but little-known neighbors of the Luba. In fact, the figure's facial traits and coiffure are characteristic of Luba art. Iron tacks inserted into the lobes of the hairdo indicate that the sculpture was originally empowered with magical and medicinal substances. Thus charged, the figure would have been used in divination and was related to a powerful association known as Bugabo, popular during early colonial times among various peoples in eastern Congo; members specialized in healing, hunting, and fighting crime. Other such sculptures once topped gourds, and some rare complete examples have survived, but this was most likely never the case for this figure.
November 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Plaque, probably from a Reliquary Shrine https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.275
This enamel plaque has been linked to the original decoration of the Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral, attributed to Nicholas of Verdun, one of the most important goldsmiths of the late 12th century.
December 9, 2025 at 5:23 PM
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Virgin and Child with a Goldfinch https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.101
Neroccio di Bartolomeo de’ Landi was both a painter and sculptor. He was a student of Vecchietta, and then he shared a workshop with Francesco di Giorgio from 1468. Neroccio is considered by many to be a Madonna painter par excellence. His aristocratic images were much appreciated in his time, and he is perhaps among Siena’s last great painters of the 1500s.
December 9, 2025 at 3:21 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Single Leaf from an Antiphonary: Initial H[odie nobis] with The Nativity https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.282
This initial h introduces the first matins response for Christmas Day: Hodie nobis celorum rex (“On this day the King of Heaven”). Illustrating this artist’s love of fantastic detail, an entwined dragon climbs the ascender of the h. Christ’s nativity is within the letter, complete with adoring shepherds. Above is the figure of Christ blessing, surrounded by singing angels intended to suggest the heavenly realm. Benvenuto is first recorded in 1453, when he is known to have been working on the frescoes in the Siena Baptistery. This leaf comes from a set of choir books commissioned for Siena’s Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala by Niccolò Ricoveri, the hospital’s rector, as indicated by the coat of arms at the bottom of the leaf.
December 9, 2025 at 2:34 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain: Fol. 160r https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.256.160.a
This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies. This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
December 9, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by CMA: Medieval Art
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Boxer Rebellion, 1983
https://botfrens.com/collections/27/contents/5186
Boxer Rebellion
November 27, 2025 at 11:15 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.801
A cassone was a wooden chest used for the storage of clothing, an essential piece of furniture in Italian homes during the Renaissance and often produced in matched sets. The cassone was often made on the occasion of a marriage and elaborately decorated with painted scenes and gilded moldings. This panel comes from such a painted cassone. It was not uncommon for the painted decoration to represent a memorable event at the time of the marriage. This scene depicts the end of the Palio, a horse race held in the streets of Florence on the Feast of John the Baptist (June 24). The panel from the other side of the cassone is now preserved in the Bargello Museum in Florence and shows the procession of the Palii banners before the race. The cassone commemorates a wedding between members of the Fini and Aldobrandini families in 1418.
December 9, 2025 at 9:03 AM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain: Fol. 186r https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.256.186.a
This manuscript was illuminated by a circle of at least five highly organized manuscript painters active in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. The principal illuminator was Alexander Bening, who painted the majority of the book's miniatures. Manuscripts produced by this circle of artists are renowned for the decoration of their borders, which typically feature a rich variety of realistically-painted flowers, birds, and butterflies. This prayer book, called a book of hours, was intended not for a cleric, but for the private devotions of a lay person-in this case, Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain (1451-1504). Isabella's coat of arms embellishes the book's frontispiece. It is unlikely that the book was commissioned by the Queen herself; rather, she probably received it as a diplomatic gift from someone courting her patronage, perhaps Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. A Franciscan friar, Jimenez was dependent upon Isabella for his advancement, first to the post of Queen's confessor in 1492, and then to Archbishop of Toledo in 1495.
December 8, 2025 at 6:47 PM
cmamedieval.bsky.social
Triple Unite (obverse) https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.196.a
Triple Unite (obverse)
December 8, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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Noble (reverse) https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.162.b
Noble (reverse)
December 8, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by CMA: Medieval Art
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Two Trees (recto) Tree Studies (verso) https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.173
Two Trees (recto) Tree Studies (verso)
November 24, 2025 at 5:14 PM