Plaque: The Crucifixion with Angels and Saints (c. 1400–1425): Art, History and Details

Plaque: The Crucifixion with Angels and Saints (c. 1400–1425) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Small glass plaques like this were often combined with plaques of painted wood and framed within elaborate architectural reliquaries or small altarpieces. The decorative technique, called verre églomisé, is a process in which the reverse side of a glass is gilded and then engraved with designs. The pelican, shown above the cross piercing its breast to feed its young, became a common symbol of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Object facts

• Title: Plaque: The Crucifixion with Angels and Saints
• Date: c. 1400–1425
• Culture: Northern Italy, Padua?, 15th century
• Type: Glass
• Technique: verre églomisé (reverse gilded glass, engraved and painted)
• Dimensions: Overall: 19.4 x 9.4 x 0.4 cm (7 5/8 x 3 11/16 x 3/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1978.41

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Six Works from Von Hirsch Collection,” August 1, 1978, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1978.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 1 (January 1979): 3–48.
• Wixom, William D. “Eleven Additions to the Medieval Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 3 (Mar/Apr 1979): 87–151.

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.