Mourning Saint John the Evangelist (early 1400s): Art, History and Details

Mourning Saint John the Evangelist (early 1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

These small statuettes would have originally flanked a crucifix as suggested by this arrangement. According to the Gospels, the Virgin and Saint John were present on Golgotha at Christ’s death. Medieval artists frequently depicted them standing next to the cross.

Object facts

• Title: Mourning Saint John the Evangelist
• Date: early 1400s
• Culture: Austria, Upper Rhine, 15th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt copper
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.6 cm (5 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1942.1093

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. “Copper-Gilt Cross from Vienna.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 30, no. 10 (December 1943): 147–156.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.