Altar Frontal: Scenes from the Childhood of Christ (c. 1500): Art, History and Details

Altar Frontal: Scenes from the Childhood of Christ (c. 1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Pictorial tapestries were symbols of wealth and more highly prized than paintings. Small tapestries with Christian imagery were frequently commissioned to embellish the fronts of altars. This example displays the Massacre of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt, and Christ among the Doctors. Tapestry weave is ideal for creating narrative scenes. The technique can be compared to painting, as each colored weft (horizontal thread) is interlaced with warps (vertical thread) where needed for the pattern. As expensive investments, tapestries have the advantage of being portable and easily stored and displayed.

Object facts

• Title: Altar Frontal: Scenes from the Childhood of Christ
• Date: c. 1500
• Culture: France and South Netherlands, 1500s
• Type: Tapestry
• Technique: Wool, silk, gold thread; tapestry weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 107.3 x 240 cm (42 1/4 x 94 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1942.826

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.
• Milliken, William M., Gertrude Underhill, and Jean Mailey. "Department of Decorative Arts." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 9 (November 1942): 137-151.
• Wadsworth Atheneum, Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, and Charles Crehore Cunningham. 2000 Years of Tapestry Weaving: A Loan Exhibition : Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Dec. 7, 1951 to Jan. 27, 1952 ; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Feb. 27, 1952 to Mar. 25, 1952. Hartford, Conn: Wardsworth Atheneum], 1951.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.