id: 125553
accession number: 1947.483
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.483
updated: 2022-01-04 15:35:14.220000
The Crucifixion with Four Angels, c. 1475. Martin Schongauer (German, c.1450-1491). Engraving; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1947.483
title: The Crucifixion with Four Angels
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1475
creation date earliest: 1470
creation date latest: 1480
current location:
creditline: Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.
copyright:
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culture: Germany, 15th century
technique: engraving
department: Prints
collection: PR - Engraving
type: Print
find spot:
catalogue raisonne: Lehrs V.95.14
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CREATORS
* Martin Schongauer (German, c.1450-1491) - artist
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.
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Sacred and Profane in Late Gothic Prints
opening date: 1987-06-02T04:00:00
Sacred and Profane in Late Gothic Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 2-August 2, 1987).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
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fun fact:
The collecting of Christ's blood in chalices by the angels in this composition refers directly to transubstantiation, or conversion of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ during Roman Catholic mass.
digital description:
Martin Schongauer engraved several variations of the Crucifixion, often inspired by fifteenth-century Netherlandish paintings of the same subject. Here, upon a realistic landscape, the exaggeratedly thin and emaciated body of Christ hangs on the cross.The Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist are mourning Christ's death at each side of the cross. Four hovering angels catch the blood from Christ's wounds and collect it in chalices. At the bottom of the cross, a bone and the skull of Adam, lie on the ground, and allude to Golgotha, the site of Christ's crucifixion, believed to be the spot where Adam died. The development of early printing methods during the fifteenth century offered more people personal devotional images that were previously limited to less affordable media, like paintings, sculptures, or illuminated manuscripts. Images of the Crucifixion functioned as devotional tools meant to help the faithful to meditate on Christ's suffering, sacrifice, and the redemption of humanity.
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RELATED WORKS
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1947.483/1947.483_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1947.483/1947.483_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1947.483/1947.483_full.tif