The Mystical Grapes (c. 1500): Art, History and Details

The Mystical Grapes (c. 1500) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This tapestry illustrates the symbolic relationship between wine and Christ’s blood that forms a central belief of the Catholic faith. Flanked by the Virgin Mary and Joseph, the Christ child squeezes grapes into a chalice, symbolizing the gift of his blood for the redemption of humankind. With its small scale, luxurious metallic threads, and extraordinary detail, the tapestry was intended to aid in private devotion. Locking eyes with the infant Christ, the fruit of the Virgin’s womb (represented by the pomegranate in the glass), the user would contemplate Christ’s fate.

Object facts

• Title: The Mystical Grapes
• Date: c. 1500
• Culture: Flanders, possibly Bruges
• Type: Tapestry
• Technique: Wool, silk, silver thread; tapestry weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 79 x 75.9 cm (31 1/8 x 29 7/8 in.); Framed: 102.2 x 99.7 cm (40 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1973.77

A detail from the museum

Tapestries were among the most expensive material goods in the medieval and early modern periods. Nevertheless, they were ubiquitous among the upper echelons of society who used them to decorate and warm their drafty living spaces.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 ( February 1974): 31–78. Published as: The Eucharist
• “Annual Report for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 6 (June 1974): 179–213. Published as: The Eucharist
• Wardwell, Anne E. "The Mystical Grapes, a Devotional Tapestry." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 1 (1975): 17-23.

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.