{
"data": {
"id": 147579,
"accession_number": "1973.77",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Mystical Grapes, c. 1500. Flanders, possibly Bruges. Wool, silk, silver thread; tapestry weave; overall: 79 x 75.9 cm (31 1/8 x 29 7/8 in.); framed: 102.2 x 99.7 cm (40 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1973.77",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Mystical Grapes",
"creation_date": "c. 1500",
"creation_date_earliest": 1495,
"creation_date_latest": 1505,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Flanders, possibly Bruges"
],
"technique": "Wool, silk, silver thread; tapestry weave",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Textiles",
"collection": "Textiles",
"type": "Tapestry",
"measurements": "Overall: 79 x 75.9 cm (31 1/8 x 29 7/8 in.); Framed: 102.2 x 99.7 cm (40 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.79,
"height_inch": 31,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"width": 0.759,
"width_inch": 29,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
},
"framed": {
"height": 1.022,
"height_inch": 40,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.997,
"width_inch": 39,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 309851,
"title": "Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages",
"description": "Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 22-March 17, 1985).",
"opening_date": "1985-01-22T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 344792,
"title": "Only for Beauty? (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115",
"description": "Only for Beauty? (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 2014-December 7, 2015).",
"opening_date": "2014-12-08T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 343659,
"title": "Art of Embroidery in Late Medieval Europe (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115",
"description": "Art of Embroidery in Late Medieval Europe (Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 19, 2020-April 11, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2020-12-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 315726,
"title": "The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England",
"description": "The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (co-organizer) (February 26-May 14, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2023-02-25T05:00:00"
},
{
"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": "Spitzer Collection; Economas Collection; Mortimer Schiff Collection; (Spencer A. Samuels & Co., Ltd.)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Tapestries were among the most expensive material goods in the medieval and early modern periods. Nevertheless, they were ubiquitous among the upper echelons of society who used them to decorate and warm their drafty living spaces.",
"description": "This tapestry illustrates the symbolic relationship between wine and Christ\u2019s blood that forms a central belief of the Catholic faith. Flanked by the Virgin Mary and Joseph, the Christ child squeezes grapes into a chalice, symbolizing the gift of his blood for the redemption of humankind. With its small scale, luxurious metallic threads, and extraordinary detail, the tapestry was intended to aid in private devotion. Locking eyes with the infant Christ, the fruit of the Virgin\u2019s womb (represented by the pomegranate in the glass), the user would contemplate Christ\u2019s fate.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79926986"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1973.77-the-mystical-grapes"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Wardwell, Anne E. \"The Mystical Grapes, a Devotional Tapestry.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 1 (1975): 17-23.",
"page_number": "p. 17-23",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25152571."
},
{
"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. 81",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n101"
},
{
"citation": "Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985.",
"page_number": "p. 28, 30-31, 58",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Adolph S. Cavallo. Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.",
"page_number": "p. 337, fig. 337",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleland, Elizabeth. \"Small-Scale Devotional Tapestries\u2014Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Part 2: The \u201cMystic Grapes Group\u201d.\" Studies in the Decorative Arts 16, no. 2 (2009): 141-64.",
"page_number": "p. 141-64",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/652508"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.77",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.77/1973.77_web.jpg",
"width": "855",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "699156",
"filename": "1973.77_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.77/1973.77_print.jpg",
"width": "3257",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "10555283",
"filename": "1973.77_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1973.77/1973.77_full.tif",
"width": "4772",
"height": "4982",
"filesize": "71359792",
"filename": "1973.77_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 147579,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1973-05-07T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1495,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1500",
"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 06:50:47.104000"
}
}