Cranequin (c. 1480–1500): Art, History and Details

Cranequin (c. 1480–1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Bows made of composite materials were developed during the 1400s. They were immensely powerful and could be spanned only with the aid of a winder called a cranequin like the one seen here.

Object facts

• Title: Cranequin
• Date: c. 1480–1500
• Culture: France(?)
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel and brass; incised decoration; pierced traceried Gothic windows
• Dimensions: Rack: 39.4 cm (15 1/2 in.); Crank: 30.2 cm (11 7/8 in.); Gear housing: 12.1 cm (4 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.2082

A detail from the museum

The mark, made of inlaid copper, is currently unidentified.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Arms and Armor: [Exhibition] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Summer, 1899. Boston: The Museum, 1899.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.

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.