Mourning Mary (c. 1710–40): Art, History and Details

Mourning Mary (c. 1710–40) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This figure’s orientation suggests it may have been part of a Crucifixion group, situated to the left of Christ with another figure to the right to balance the composition. Fingers knotted in prayer, lips parted in anguish, the Virgin appears to recoil from the sight of her son on the cross. Her contorted pose and agitated draperies are visible manifestations of her grief. Obvious signs of wear to the stone suggest that the group may have been set outside of a church, perhaps atop pillars.

Object facts

• Title: Mourning Mary
• Date: c. 1710–40
• Culture: Austria, Vienna
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: stone with traces of original color
• Dimensions: Overall: 130.2 x 59.3 x 43.2 cm (51 1/4 x 23 3/8 x 17 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1967.229

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hawley, Henry. "Annual Report for 1967: Decorative Arts." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LV, no. 6 (June, 1968): 174-177.
• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1968." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 1 (1969): 3-50.
• "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly XXXII, no. 2 (Summer 1969): 207-234.

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.