The Resurrection, from an Altar Frontal (1375–1400): Art, History and Details

The Resurrection, from an Altar Frontal (1375–1400) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This scene of the Resurrection, along with 11 additional embroideries of the life of Christ, may have formed an altar frontal, a hanging decorating the front of an altar. Originally, expensive gold thread covered the background, but it was removed and probably melted down for its monetary value. The loss of the gold exposes a rarely seen preparatory drawing on the linen ground created by an unidentified painter. Now exposed, thick cotton thread forms scrolling vines that, when covered with radiant gold thread, would have paralleled the effect of raised plaster decoration in paintings. What does survive is of the highest quality and refinement, including more than 20 brilliant shades of silk thread.

Object facts

• Title: The Resurrection, from an Altar Frontal
• Date: 1375–1400
• Culture: Italy, Florence
• Type: Embroidery
• Technique: Silk, gold and cotton thread, linen; raised work, embroidery: split, stem, and couching stitches
• Dimensions: Overall: 29.2 x 41.9 cm (11 1/2 x 16 1/2 in.); Mounted: 38.7 x 51.4 cm (15 1/4 x 20 1/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Ecclesiastical
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1929.904

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hague, Marian. 1933. “Notes on Some Fourteenth Century Embroideries in Judge Untermyer's Collection.” The Bulletin of the Needle and Bobbin Club. [New York]: Needle and Bobbin Club, XVII, no 1..
• Farcy, Louis de. La broderie du XIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours d'après des spécimens authentiques et les anciens inventaires. Angers: Belhomme, 1890.
• Underhill, Gertrude. "Old Embroideries in the Museum." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 8 (October 1930): 151–154.

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.