{
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"accession_number": "1938.294",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Vesperbild (Piet\u00e0), c. 1515\u201320. Master of Rabenden (German). Lindenwood, polychromed and gilded ; overall: 89.1 x 78.7 x 32.4 cm (35 1/16 x 31 x 12 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1938.294",
"current_location": "111 German and Austrian Gothic",
"title": "Vesperbild (Piet\u00e0)",
"creation_date": "c. 1515\u201320",
"creation_date_earliest": 1510,
"creation_date_latest": 1525,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Germany, Upper Bavaria, 16th century"
],
"technique": "lindenwood, polychromed and gilded ",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Gothic",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 89.1 x 78.7 x 32.4 cm (35 1/16 x 31 x 12 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.891,
"height_inch": 35,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.787,
"width_inch": 31,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 0.324,
"depth_inch": 12,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 180667,
"title": "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008): \"Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art\"",
"opening_date": "2007-10-30T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Georg Schuster Collection, Munich, Germany; (Julius B\u00f6hler, Munich, Germany).",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
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"did_you_know": "This sculpture sensitively depicts the Virgin cradling the body of Christ. This devotional image was likely placed near the altar in a German chapel. Imagine standing in a small, quiet chapel looking up at these lifelike figures with flickering candles casting dappled light onto their surface.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Depicting the Virgin cradling Christ\u2019s dead body, works like this one were known in German as vesperbilds, owing to their incorporation into the liturgy of the evening prayer (vespers) on Good Friday. The word piet\u00e0\u2014from the Latin pietas, meaning \"piety\" or \"compassion\"\u2014was also used to describe such works. Like other devotional image types that emerged in southern Germany in the later medieval period, vesperbilds encouraged viewers to contemplate Christ\u2019s suffering and empathize with the Virgin\u2019s sorrows more directly and emotively than ever before. This anonymous German artist is named after one of his most important works, the high altar of the church of Rabenden in the Chiemgau, the foothills of the Alps. The sculpture was likely placed in a secondary chapel in a Bavarian church.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60778676"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1938.294-vesperbild-pieta"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Milliken, William. \"Late German Gothic Sculpture.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 4 (April 1939): 43-46.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 42; Mentioned: p. 44",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25138004"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 191",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n45"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 76",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n100"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 76",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n100"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 88",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n108"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 248-249, no. 93",
"url": ""
}
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"updated_at": "2026-08-05 09:05:33.659000"
}
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