The Temptation of Christ (1400s): Art, History and Details

The Temptation of Christ (1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Master L Cz (German).

The work and its context

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

Following his baptism, Christ fasted in the wilderness for 40 days, after which he was tempted three times by the devil. In this scene, the devil points to some stones. “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread,” the devil taunts. Satan is depicted in a loathsome manner with horns, a scaly body, and wings and claws for hands and feet. Because the desert was the traditional home of demons, temptation in one form or another lay in wait for those who ventured there, as seen here and in the depictions of Saint Anthony of Egypt nearby.

Object facts

• Title: The Temptation of Christ
• Date: 1400s
• Creator attribution: Master L Cz (German)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 22.8 x 16.8 cm (9 x 6 5/8 in.); Mat Size: 48.7 x 36.2 cm (19 3/16 x 14 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1954.743

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Richards, Louise. "An Engraving by the Master LCz." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 43, no. 2 (February 1956): 26-29.
• Mikolic, Amanda. he Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.