id: 123024 accession number: 1943.280 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.280 updated: 2022-06-25 09:00:31.687000 Processional Cross, c. 1320. Master of Santa Chiara (Italian). Oil on canvas on wood; unframed: 61.3 x 44.2 x 2.6 cm (24 1/8 x 17 3/8 x 1 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1943.280 title: Processional Cross title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1320 creation date earliest: 1315 creation date latest: 1325 current location: 110A Italian Gothic creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, Umbria, 14th century technique: oil on canvas on wood department: Medieval Art collection: MED - Renaissance type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Master of Santa Chiara (Italian) - artist --- measurements: Unframed: 61.3 x 44.2 x 2.6 cm (24 1/8 x 17 3/8 x 1 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Treasury of Saint Francis of Assisi opening date: 1999-03-15T00:00:00 The Treasury of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 15-June 27, 1999). title: The Caporali Missal: A Masterpiece of Renaissance Illumination opening date: 2013-02-17T00:00:00 The Caporali Missal: A Masterpiece of Renaissance Illumination. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 17-June 2, 2013). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Charles A. Loeser, Florence, Italy date: footnotes: citations: Achille de Clemente, Florence (New York sale Jan 15, 1931) date: ?-1931 footnotes: citations: William Randolph Hearst (New York, NY Sale 1941) date: 1931-1941 footnotes: citations: (Mr. Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1941-1943 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Oh date: 1943- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This cross is painted on both sides so that while being carried in a procession the images are visible to a crowd; both sides are not quite identical. digital description: wall description: This cross was originally mounted on a tall pole and carried in religious processions. Therefore, the figures on each side are almost identical. In the center is Christ crucified. Looking on from the elaborate terminals at left and right are the Virgin and Saint John. The bottom terminal shows a different saint on each side: Saint Francis on one and Saint Clare on the other. At the top of each side is an angel. Although one angel looks up and the other down, both express intense grief in their faces and gestures. The Master of Santa Chiara is the name given to this unknown artist who painted this and several other works in Assisi. In that city, Saint Francis founded an order of friars while Saint Clare established a counterpart for women called the Poor Clares. The presence of both saints on this cross suggests that it was made for one of Assisi's Franciscian institutions. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS American Art Association, Anderson Galleries (Firm), and Achille de Clemente. Italian Furniture of the Renaissance: Rare Majolica, Brocades, Velvets, Renaissance Bronzes, Sculptures, Stone and Terra Cotta Groups, Primitive and Renaissance Paintings. [New York]: American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, 1931. page number: p. 169, cat. no. 491 url: Francis, Henry S. "A Fifteenth-Century Florentine Processional Cross." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 32, no. 1 (1945). page number: pp. 3-5 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141174 Offner, Richard, Klara Steinweg, and Hayden B. J. Maginnis. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. [New York]: College of Fine Arts, New York University, 1930. page number: pp. 166-7 url: 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. 404 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n74 Francis, Henry S. "Sassetta: Crucifixion with St. Francis." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 3 (1963). page number: p. 46, fig. 1 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25151940 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. 58 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n82 Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places : Central Italian and North Italian Schools. London: Phaidon, 1968. page number: p. 356 url: Boskovits, Miklós. Un pittore "espressionista" del trecento umbro. Perugia: Facoltà di lettere e filosofia dell'Università degli studi di Perugia, 1968. page number: pp. 126-7, figs. 11-12 url: 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. 58 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n82 Yale University, and Charles Seymour. Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery; A Catalogue. New Haven: Published for the Yale University Art Gallery by Yale University Press, 1970. page number: p. 101 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Louise d' Argencourt, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: pp. 138-9, no. 49, url: 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. 65 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n85 Cole, Bruce. Italian Art, 1250-1550: The Relation of Renaissance Art to Life and Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. page number: p. 197, fig. 152 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. page number: p. 147 url: Morello, Giovanni, and Laurence B. Kanter. The Treasury of Saint Francis of Assisi. Milan: Electa, 1999. page number: pp. 86-7, cat. no. 9 url: Cook, William R. Images of St. Francis of Assisi: In Painting, Stone and Glass : from the Earliest Images to Ca. 1320 in Italy : a Catalogue. Firenze: L.S. Olschki, 1999. page number: pp. 85-6, cat. no. 52 url: Levkoff, Mary L. Hearst, the Collector. New York: Abrams, 2008. page number: p. 131, fig. 8.7 url: Fliegel, Stephen N., Dilys Blum, Bartolomeo Caporali, and Giacomo Caporali. The Caporali Missal: A Masterpiece of Renaissance Illumination. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. page number: pp. 114-5, cat. 17 url: Andergassen, Leo. L'iconografia di Sant'Antonio di Padova dal XIII al XVI secolo in Italia. Padova: Centro studi antoniani, 2016. page number: Mentioned: p. 206, no. 284 url: Zappasodi, Emanuele. Sorores reclusae: spazi di clausura e immagini dipinte in Umbria fra XIII e XIV secolo.Firenze: Mandragora, 2018. page number: Mentioned: p. 104, note 192 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.280/1943.280_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.280/1943.280_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.280/1943.280_full.tif