Christ in a Mandorla, with the instruments of the Passion, with St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below (c. 1230s): Art, History and Details

Christ in a Mandorla, with the instruments of the Passion, with St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below (c. 1230s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Berlinghiero (Italian, before 1242).

The work and its context

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

This small altarpiece, intended for a domestic interior or private chapel, consists of three panels, allowing it to be folded and easily transported. Surrounding the Virgin and Child in the center are various saints. On the left is Saint Andrew crucified, with St. Francis and St. Paul below; on the right, Christ with the instruments of the Passion, and St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below. The long expressive lines that define the clothing and hands of the figures are typical of Byzantine painting, which spread from Constantinople to Italy in the Middle Ages. Berlinghiero is one of the earliest Italian painters known by name. He lived in Lucca, the most important artistic center in Tuscany before the rise of Siena and Florence. Berlinghiero headed a large, influential workshop that included his sons.

Object facts

• Title: Christ in a Mandorla, with the instruments of the Passion, with St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below
• Date: c. 1230s
• Creator attribution: Berlinghiero (Italian, before 1242)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera and gold on wood
• Dimensions: Unframed: 42.4 x 12 cm (16 11/16 x 4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1966.237.c

A detail from the museum

This tabernacle was recognized as being by Berlinghiero while in the the collection of Adolphe Stoclet, a wealthy Belgian engineer and collector.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

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.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.

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.