Plaque: Seated Prophet from a Reliquary Shrine (c. 1170–80): Art, History and Details

Plaque: Seated Prophet from a Reliquary Shrine (c. 1170–80) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Once used as decorations for a reliquary shrine, each enamel plaque represents a biblical prophet: Isaiah, Obadiah, Elisha, and Hosea. Fine gold dots punctuate dark blue backgrounds. Typical of Hildesheim enamels, this detailing creates the illusion that the prophets sit against star-studded twilight skies.

Object facts

• Title: Plaque: Seated Prophet from a Reliquary Shrine
• Date: c. 1170–80
• Culture: Germany, Lower Saxony, Hildesheim, Romanesque period, 12th century
• Type: Enamel
• Technique: gilded copper, champlevé enamel
• Dimensions: Average: 9 x 5.7 x 0.3 cm (3 9/16 x 2 1/4 x 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Romanesque
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1950.574

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. “Four Champlevé Enamel Plaques.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 38, no. 4 (April 1951): 72–74.
• 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.