{
"data": {
"id": 128806,
"accession_number": "1951.429",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "A Censer, c. 1480\u201390. Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450\u20131491). Engraving; sheet: 26.4 x 21 cm (10 3/8 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1951.429",
"current_location": null,
"title": "A Censer",
"creation_date": "c. 1480\u201390",
"creation_date_earliest": 1480,
"creation_date_latest": 1490,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Germany"
],
"technique": "engraving",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Engraving",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Sheet: 26.4 x 21 cm (10 3/8 x 8 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.264,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.21,
"width_inch": 8,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": "I/I",
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 310039,
"title": "Sacred and Profane in Late Gothic Prints",
"description": "Sacred and Profane in Late Gothic Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 2-August 2, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-06-02T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310306,
"title": "Design and Decoration: Ornament Prints",
"description": "Design and Decoration: Ornament Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 7-October 28, 1990).",
"opening_date": "1990-08-07T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 683420,
"title": "In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth)",
"description": "In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2025-January 11, 2026).",
"opening_date": "2025-09-07T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(William H. Schab Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131951",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "November 15, 1951\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The vine-like ornament that covers the openwork areas of this censer suggests a Christological metaphor of the grapes made into the Eucharist wine.",
"description": "Censers are liturgical containers swung back and forth on long chains to disperse incense during the celebration of the mass. In this print, Martin Schongauer exploited his early training as a goldsmith to create a detailed reproduction of a life-size censer. The exquisite filigree design of the openwork areas, and the minute figurines of angels holding chains that crumple on the ground and cast slight shadows suggest that Schongauer's Censer could have been a close replica of an existing censer, or a model for a goldsmith.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79909275"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1951.429-a-censer"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Richards, Louise. \"Engravings by Martin Schongauer.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 42, no. 3 (March 1955): 43-45.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 43",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142023"
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Lehrs V.359.106",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1951.429",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.429/1951.429_web.jpg",
"width": "711",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "518718",
"filename": "1951.429_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.429/1951.429_print.jpg",
"width": "2706",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "7016819",
"filename": "1951.429_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.429/1951.429_full.tif",
"width": "3962",
"height": "4978",
"filesize": "59200836",
"filename": "1951.429_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 128806,
"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": "1951-11-15T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1480,
"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": "2026-05-01 06:49:02.929000"
}
}