Mourning Saint John (c. 1240–1260): Art, History and Details

Mourning Saint John (c. 1240–1260) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

These traditional devotional figures at one time formed a Crucifixion group with a Crucified Christ (now lost). The ensemble may have been mounted high above the entrance to the sanctuary of a church on a barrier called a rood beam, beyond which lay people were not allowed. Crucifixion groups were common in medieval churches where they symbolized the sacrifice and real presence of Christ in the Mass.

Object facts

• Title: Mourning Saint John
• Date: c. 1240–1260
• Culture: Austria, Region of Salzburg, Lungau?, 13th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: painted wood
• Dimensions: Overall: 43.8 x 11.5 cm (17 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1958.189

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Severance A. Millikin

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.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.