{
"data": {
"id": 108785,
"accession_number": "1926.466",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Griffin, c. 1480\u201390. Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450\u20131491). Engraving; sheet: 10.8 x 10.3 cm (4 1/4 x 4 1/16 in.); mat size: 49 x 36.2 cm (19 5/16 x 14 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1926.466",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Griffin",
"creation_date": "c. 1480\u201390",
"creation_date_earliest": 1475,
"creation_date_latest": 1495,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Germany"
],
"technique": "engraving",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Engraving",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Sheet: 10.8 x 10.3 cm (4 1/4 x 4 1/16 in.); Mat Size: 49 x 36.2 cm (19 5/16 x 14 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.108,
"height_inch": 4,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.103,
"width_inch": 4,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0625
},
"mat size": {
"height": 0.49,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"width": 0.362,
"width_inch": 14,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 357426,
"title": "Italian and German Prints of the 15th Century",
"description": "Italian and German Prints of the 15th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29, 1933-January 3, 1934).",
"opening_date": "1933-11-29T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 356411,
"title": "15th Century German and Netherlands Prints from the Museum Collection",
"description": "15th Century German and Netherlands Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 11-28, 1935).",
"opening_date": "1935-10-11T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 345396,
"title": "Inaugural Exhibition of the New Print Gallery - Prints from the Museum Collection",
"description": "Inaugural Exhibition of the New Print Gallery - Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 10-November 13, 1938).",
"opening_date": "1938-08-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 345558,
"title": "15th Century German Engravings",
"description": "15th Century German Engravings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 15-December 11, 1938).",
"opening_date": "1938-11-15T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304516,
"title": "Eight Masters of the Print",
"description": "Eight Masters of the Print. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 14, 1980-January 18, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1980-10-14T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304550,
"title": "A Cleveland Bestiary",
"description": "A Cleveland Bestiary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 15-December 16, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1981-10-15T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310042,
"title": "Images of the Mind",
"description": "Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-07-07T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309634,
"title": "Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders",
"description": "Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 7-October 6, 2019).",
"opening_date": "2019-07-07T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 395247,
"title": "Animal Fables of Mughal India",
"description": "Animal Fables of Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 12-August 29, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2021-03-12T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern, Switzerland, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1926",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1926-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Compare Schongauer's griffin with two CMA sculptures of the same subject, once placed as guardian figures in the portal of an Italian Romanesque Christian church (1928.861.1 and 1928.861.2).",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "According to medieval bestiaries (books of beasts), the griffin is an imaginary and immensely dangerous creature, believed to carry off humans and oxen. Usually depicted with the body of a lion and the head, wings, and claws of an eagle, the griffin symbolizes both courage and vigilance. Its dual nature also signifies that of Christ himself: divine (bird) and human (animal). Martin Schongauer's griffin is an unusual combination of an eagle and an ox\u2014see the back hoofed paws\u2014departing from the traditional representation of this animal as part eagle and part lion. With a few bold strokes of the burin, Schongauer rendered in a naturalistic way the shape and texture of the feathers and fur of this fabled beast.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80000436"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1926.466-the-griffin"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 49",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1928/page/n53"
},
{
"citation": "Kathman, Barbara A. A Cleveland Bestiary. Cleveland, OH; Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 21; Mentioned: p. 21, p. 61",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Mikolic, Amanda. A Field Guide to Medieval Monsters. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 8",
"url": null
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Lehrs V.337.93",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1926.466",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.466/1926.466_web.jpg",
"width": "823",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "603057",
"filename": "1926.466_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.466/1926.466_print.jpg",
"width": "3135",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "7496347",
"filename": "1926.466_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1926.466/1926.466_full.tif",
"width": "3519",
"height": "3816",
"filesize": "40318392",
"filename": "1926.466_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 108785,
"creators": [
{
"id": 12292,
"description": "Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450\u20131491)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Martin Schongauer (ca. 1450-53, Colmar - 2 February 1491, Breisach) was one of the most skilled and influential graphic artists of Europe in the last quarter of the 15h century. Trained both as an engraver and as a painter, Schongauer started his apprenticeship under his father Caspar Schongauer, a goldsmith from Augsburg. In 1465, he matriculated at the University of Leipzig. After one year, he left his studies, and came back to Colmar. There, he was trained under the painter Caspar Isenmann, between 1466 and 1469. Schongauer later traveled down to the Rhine, Cologne, Burgundy, the Netherlands, and he likely visited Spain. In 1489, he became a citizen of Breisach, where he died probably of the plague in 1491. Only a few of Schongauer's paintings survive. Among these is the Madonna in the Rose Garden for the Church of Saint Martin in Colmar (1473), which betrays Schongauer's admiration for the works by the Netherlandish painter Roger Van der Weyden. The bulk of Schongauer's engravings is more conspicuous: 116 prints, none of them dated, but all marked by his monogram M+S. Characterized by exquisite cross-hatching and impeccable craftsmanship, Schongauer's engravings were widely imitated by the German printmakers Ishrael van Meckenem and Albrecht Durer, as well as by Italian artists, such as Cristoforo Robetta and Nicoletto da Modena.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1450",
"death_year": "1491",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1926-10-21T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1475,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1480\u201390",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 05:49:01.222000"
}
}