{
"data": {
"id": 149376,
"accession_number": "1978.36",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Scenes of the Life of the Virgin, from an Altar Frontal, 1330s or 1340s. Italy, Florence. Silk, gold thread, linen; raised work, embroidery: split, stem, running, fishbone, and couching stitches; overall: 16.8 x 127 cm (6 5/8 x 50 in.); mounted: 27.9 x 137.2 cm (11 x 54 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1978.36",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Scenes of the Life of the Virgin, from an Altar Frontal",
"creation_date": "1330s or 1340s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1330,
"creation_date_latest": 1349,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Italy, Florence"
],
"technique": "Silk, gold thread, linen; raised work, embroidery: split, stem, running, fishbone, and couching stitches",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Textiles",
"collection": "T - Ecclesiastical",
"type": "Embroidery",
"measurements": "Overall: 16.8 x 127 cm (6 5/8 x 50 in.); Mounted: 27.9 x 137.2 cm (11 x 54 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.168,
"height_inch": 6,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 1.27,
"width_inch": 50,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
},
"mounted": {
"height": 0.279,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 1.372,
"width_inch": 54,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304286,
"title": "Year in Review: 1978",
"description": "Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-02-13T05:00:00"
},
{
"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": 179384,
"title": "Draped in Splendor: Renaissance Textiles and the Church",
"description": "Draped in Splendor: Renaissance Textiles and the Church. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2003-September 26, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2003-09-07T00:00:00"
},
{
"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"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Robert von Hirsch, Basel; The Robert von Hirsch Collection, Sotheby's, London, June 22, 1978, lot 266.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This rare panel originally hung above a large embroidery that decorated the front of an altar in a church. The narrative begins with the Virgin\u2019s parents and her early life; that panel is now in the Toledo Museum of Art. Cleveland\u2019s portion continues the story with the Annunciation of the Virgin, Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation of Christ, Christ among the Doctors, and the Assumption of the Virgin. The Death of the Virgin scene is likely missing. Painters usually sketched designs on stretched linen for embroiderers. Gold thread enriches the background and is secured in place with couching stitches in a small brick pattern.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79930523"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1978.36-scenes-of-the-life-o"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cThe Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Six Works from Von Hirsch Collection,\u201d August 1, 1978, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr2569"
},
{
"citation": "Wardwell, Anne E. \"A Rare Florentine Embroidery of the Fourteenth Century.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 9 (1979): 322-33.",
"page_number": "p. 322-33",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25159650"
},
{
"citation": "Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. 1980. \u201cRecent Major Acquisitions of Medieval Art by American Museums.\u201d Gesta 19 (1): 67\u201377.",
"page_number": "p. 75, fig. 27",
"url": null
},
{
"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. 22-23, 58",
"url": null
}
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"creditline": "Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund",
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"sketchfab_id": null,
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1978-08-10T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1330,
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"date_text": "1330s or 1340s",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Embroidery with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin (Originally Part of a Superfrontal)"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-07-04 11:16:29.669000"
}
}