Christ in Majesty with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist: Single Leaf from a Book of Rules (c. 1310–20): Art, History and Details

Christ in Majesty with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist: Single Leaf from a Book of Rules (c. 1310–20) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Master of the Washington Coronation (Italian, active c. 1300–30).

The work and its context

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

In this complex image, the Virgin and St. John stand next to Christ at the Last Judgment as the final trumpets blow. Assembled below are members of the Confraternity of St. John the Evangelist in Venice, robed in white with the insignia of their order: a pastoral staff and crosses. This beautiful page comes from a mariegola, or the book of rules of this confraternity. During the late Middle Ages, every town had one or more confraternities, organizations of lay people who undertook to carry out the ideals of the Franciscans and Dominicans. Confraternities were created for the special veneration of a saint or the Holy Sacrament (the body and blood of Christ). One of their tasks was to strengthen the faith of their members.

Object facts

• Title: Christ in Majesty with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist: Single Leaf from a Book of Rules
• Date: c. 1310–20
• Creator attribution: Master of the Washington Coronation (Italian, active c. 1300–30)
• Culture: Italy, Venice
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on parchment
• Dimensions: Sheet: 27.3 x 20 cm (10 3/4 x 7 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1959.128

Collection credit

Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lavagnino, Emilio. Storia dell'arte medioevale italiana; l'età paleocristiana e l'alto medioevo, l'arte romanica, il gotico e il trecento. Torino: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1936.
• Toesca, Piero, "Quelques Miniatures Venitiennes du XIV Siecle," Scriptorium I (1946-47).
• Mirella Levi d'Ancona, "Miniature Venete Nella Collezione Wildenstein," Arte Veneta X (1956).

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.