{
"data": {
"id": 148397,
"accession_number": "1976.100",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Bifolio from an Antiphonary: Historiated Initial O with the Nativity, early 1400s. Bohemia, Prague, 15th century. Ink, tempera, and gold on parchment; sheet: 56.8 x 38.9 cm (22 3/8 x 15 5/16 in.); framed: 61.6 x 76.8 cm (24 1/4 x 30 1/4 in.); matted: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1976.100",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Bifolio from an Antiphonary: Historiated Initial O with the Nativity",
"creation_date": "early 1400s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1400,
"creation_date_latest": 1425,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Bohemia, Prague, 15th century"
],
"technique": "ink, tempera, and gold on parchment",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Manuscript Illuminations",
"type": "Manuscript",
"measurements": "Sheet: 56.8 x 38.9 cm (22 3/8 x 15 5/16 in.); Framed: 61.6 x 76.8 cm (24 1/4 x 30 1/4 in.); Matted: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.568,
"height_inch": 22,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.389,
"width_inch": 15,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
},
"framed": {
"height": 0.616,
"height_inch": 24,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.768,
"width_inch": 30,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.711,
"height_inch": 28,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.559,
"width_inch": 22,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302374,
"title": "Year in Review, 1976",
"description": "Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).",
"opening_date": "1977-02-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304558,
"title": "When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story",
"description": "When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 1, 1981-January 17, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1981-12-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311502,
"title": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art",
"description": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 25-December 19, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-09-25T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 205974,
"title": "Prague: The Crown of Bohemia",
"description": "Prague: The Crown of Bohemia. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 19, 2005-January 3, 2006); Prague Castle Picture Gallery, Czech Republic (February 16-May 21, 2006).",
"opening_date": "2005-09-19T00:00:00"
},
{
"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. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 196935,
"title": "The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection",
"description": "The Glory of the Painted Page: Manuscript Illuminations from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2010-April 17, 2011).",
"opening_date": "2010-11-06T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 289562,
"title": "Visions of the Divine: Textiles and Manuscripts from Medieval Germany (Manuscript and Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115",
"description": "Visions of the Divine: Textiles and Manuscripts from Medieval Germany (Manuscript and Textile Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 14, 2016-December 4, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2016-12-14T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 376079,
"title": "Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800-1500",
"description": "Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800-1500. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 15, 2021-January 23, 2022) https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/imperial-splendor.",
"opening_date": "2021-10-15T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Europaische Kunst um 1400, Kunsthistorischen Museum, Vienna, Austria (May 7, 1962-July 31, 1962).",
"opening_date": "1962-05-07T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "L. V. Randall, Luzern and Montreal, Canada, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "early 1930s-1976",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1976-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This splendid bifolium (a sheet folded in half to form two leaves) once formed part of an important antiphonary produced for an unidentified Benedictine monastery in Bohemia. With its rich illumination, it provides an important example of Bohemian painting during the opening years of the 15th century as well as painting in the city of Prague, one of the great court centers of Europe. The decoration of the leaf is dominated by a majestic initial O that depicts the Nativity. A scene in the background shows the angel Gabriel\u2019s Annunciation to the Shepherds. The initial itself is placed within a square frame outside of which a single Benedictine monk observes the sacred event. The initial introduces the Latin chants for the first vespers of Christmas Day: O iuda et iherusalem (\u201cOh Judea and Jerusalem\u201d). Framing the text are luxurious, scrolling acanthus leaves. Within the upper margin, two prophets emerge from the lush, foliated tendrils to observe the nativity below. In this way, the foretelling of the birth of Christ in the Old Testament is established visually.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79928816"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1976.100-bifolio-from-an-anti"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Austria. Europa\u0308ische Kunst um 1400: achte Ausstellung unter den Auspizien des Europarates. Wien: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1962.",
"page_number": "catalogue no. 183, p. 207",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Schmidt,Gerhard \"Fragmente eines B\u00f6hmischen Antiphonariums des fr\u00fchen 15 Jahrhunderts (ehemals in Seitenstetten) und eine Marientod-Initiale der Rosenwald Collection,\" Wiener Jahrbuch f\u00fcr Kunstgeschichte, XXII (1969).",
"page_number": "pp. 148-156, figs. 195, 201",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "J. Kiasa, Umeni 18 (1970).",
"page_number": "p. 412, repr.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "National Gallery of Art (U.S.), Carl Nordenfalk, Lessing J. Rosenwald, and Edith Goodkind Rosenwald. Medieval & Renaissance Miniatures from the National Gallery of Art: [Catalogue]. [Washington]: The Gallery, 1975.",
"page_number": "p. 154, fig. 41 g",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1976.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (1977).",
"page_number": "p. 74, cat. #27, repr. p. 45",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152676"
},
{
"citation": "Wixom, William D. \u201cLeaves from a Prague Antiphonary.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 10 (1977).",
"page_number": "p. 309-325, repr. front cover and figs. 1, 7, 8, 9",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159553"
},
{
"citation": "Lambert, G.; Oberth\u00fcr, M, \"Marc-Antoine Raimondi: Saints et Saintes,\" Gazette des Beaux-Arts, (July-August 1978).",
"page_number": "p. 20, fig. 43",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Boehm, Barbara Drake, and Jir\u030ci\u0301 Fajt. Prague: The Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.",
"page_number": "ex. cat. no. 116b, p. 269-270",
"url": ""
},
{
"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. 234-235, no. 86",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Fliegel, Stephen N. Resplendent Faith: Liturgical Treasuries of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2009.",
"page_number": "Pg. 84, fig. 69",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Theisen, Maria,and Eberhard Ko\u0308nig. Das Wiener Musterbuch: Kommentarband zur Faksimile-Edition des Musterbuchs Inv.-Nr. KK 5003/5004 aus der Kunstkammer des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien. Simbach/Inn: Verlag M\u00fcller & Schindler, 2012.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 32, 78, note 103; Reproduced: p. 59, fig. 17",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Wolf, Fabian. Die Weihnachtsvision der Birgitta von Schweden: Bildkunst und Imagination im Wechselspiel. Regensburg: Schnell + Steiner, 2018.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 343, note 1719; Reproduced: p. 343. Abb. 173",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kubi\u0301nova\u0301, Kater\u030cina, and Kla\u0301ra Benes\u030covska\u0301. Imago, imagines I-II: vy\u0301tvarne\u0301 di\u0301lo a prome\u030cny jeho funkci\u0301 v c\u030cesky\u0301ch zemi\u0301ch od 10. do prvni\u0301 tr\u030cetiny 16. stoleti\u0301. Praha: Academia, 2019.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Vol. 1, p. 306, fig. 22",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hamburger, Jeffrey F., Joshua O'Driscoll, and Colin B. Bailey. Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800-1500. 2021.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund",
"image_credit": null,
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"athena_id": 148397,
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"accession_date": "1976-10-28T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1400,
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"alternate_titles": [
"Bifolio from an Antiphonary for Benedictine Use"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:37:57.229000"
}
}