Pilgrim's Ampulla with the Crucifixion (front) (c. 600): Art, History and Details

Pilgrim's Ampulla with the Crucifixion (front) (c. 600) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The images found on the sides of surviving lead pilgrims' ampullae include scenes relating to the life of Christ, and by extension to the holy sites (loca sancta) where the events took place. Cast into the sides of this ampulla are scenes of Christ's Crucifixion on the front and the Ascension on the back. The use of such sacred images on these vessels illustrates the early Christian belief that images were carriers of divine power. This ampulla is known as a "Monza" or "Bobbio" type after caches of similar examples discovered in those two Italian towns.

Object facts

• Title: Pilgrim's Ampulla with the Crucifixion (front)
• Date: c. 600
• Culture: Byzantium, Palestine, early Byzantine period, early 7th Century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: tin-lead alloy with leather fragments
• Dimensions: Overall: 6.3 x 4.6 x 1.5 cm (2 1/2 x 1 13/16 x 9/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1999.46.a

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from 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.