Christ's Mission to the Apostles (c. 970–980): Art, History and Details

Christ's Mission to the Apostles (c. 970–980) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This ivory plaque represents a full-length figure of Christ flanked by bust-length portraits of the twelve apostles, six in a vertical column on each side. With his large eyes fixed on the beholder and his mouth slightly open, Christ seems about to speak to the apostles, charging them with the mission of preaching the Gospel to the world. The plaque may originally have formed the central decoration of a precious Gospel book cover that may have looked much like the one Christ carries in this image.

Object facts

• Title: Christ's Mission to the Apostles
• Date: c. 970–980
• Culture: Ottonian, Italy, Milan, Gothic period, 10th century
• Type: Ivory
• Technique: ivory
• Dimensions: Overall: 18.2 x 9.9 x 1 cm (7 3/16 x 3 7/8 x 3/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1967.65

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 10 (December 1967): 302–346.
• Wixom, William D. “An Ottonian Ivory Book Cover.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 55, no. 9 (November 1968): 275–289.
• 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.