Altarpiece with Relics - Sponge, lower left (c. 1735–1740): Art, History and Details

Altarpiece with Relics - Sponge, lower left (c. 1735–1740) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Joseph Matthias Götz (German, 1696–1760); Workshop.

The work and its context

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

Götz covers every surface in gold leaf, giving each part of the object equal importance, rather than simply framing a central picture. In this distinctively Central European approach, figural narrative is subordinate to the overall ensemble. Götz designed this object to rest on top of an altar, probably in front of a larger painted or sculpted decorative scheme. The work contains relics seen through the small windows on the perimeter. These small remains of holy figures demonstrate the persistence of a medieval Catholic tradition well into the 1700s.

Object facts

• Title: Altarpiece with Relics - Sponge, lower left
• Date: c. 1735–1740
• Creator attribution: Joseph Matthias Götz (German, 1696–1760); Workshop
• Culture: Germany, Bavaria, 18th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilded wood, with relics in niches: gilded wood, mother-of-pearl, ebony, red silk, gold wire, seed pearls, rock crystal, pen and ink on paper
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1964.357.i

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• Lee, Sherman E. "Golden Anniversary Acquisitions: September 10 through October 16." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53, no. 7 (1966): 181-284.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

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.