Images

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=73A629CF20B9F97B0148C27066AE94A460C18A424C08577E74AB2F1561AAD9A8&s=24247294&se=1891666025&v=3&f=1932.179_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=64333B6EF33130D39BB76EFE36A673F85BCB3A32151E17FA7F2E921ED8AB591F&s=24247294&se=1891666025&v=1&f=%5C1932.179_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=B1326DC4C322BFBA3894BE580BCF271C13595093464FA3C2542DF1F363F1A5F7&s=24247294&se=1891666025&v=1&f=%5C1932.179det01_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=C00ED84DE3CA0D79F12880583EE3024D2B1811B7A572363A11EDA800DA4CBD66&s=24247294&se=1891666025&v=1&f=%5C1932.179detFR_o2.jpg

Additional Views

Oct 19, 2011

Oct 16, 2006

Oct 19, 2011

A Bridal Couple

c. 1470

Southern Germany, 15th century

Oil on panel

Framed: 77.5 x 51 x 8.1 cm (30 1/2 x 20 1/16 x 3 3/16 in.); Unframed: 62.3 x 36.5 cm (24 1/2 x 14 3/8 in.)

Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds 1932.179

Location

111 German and Austrian Gothic

Did you know?

This painting inspired internationally renowned Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho to write a piece of music titled "Orion" after she visited the museum.

Description

This painting depicting a recently married aristocratic couple is filled with symbolism. The various floral elements represent love and fertility, while the colors of their clothes suggest not only their relationship but also chastity, love, and modesty. What details might you choose to symbolize a young couple in love?

Video

Provenance

1825-1903

L. Schutzenberger, Strasbourg, France

1903-?

André Weil, Paris, France

?-1932

(Wildenstein & Co., NY, New York), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1932-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Burger, Fritz, Hermann Schmitz, and Ignaz Beth. Die deutsche Malerei vom ausgehenden Mittelalter bis zum Fnde der Renaissance. Berlin-Neubabelsberg: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion m.b.h, 1913.

Art Digest (November. 1, 1932). p. 6

"Two New Paintings—Cleveland." The American Magazine of Art 25, no. 6 (1932). p. 357 www.jstor.org

Illustrated London News (Nov. 5, 1932). p. 708

Art News (October 22, 1932). p. 4

H. S. F. "A German Primitive of the Swabian School." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 19, no. 8 (1932) pp. 127-131 www.jstor.org

Magazine of Art (October 1932). p. 4

Creative Art (November 1932). p. 72, cover

Gazette des Beaux-Arts (December 1932). p. 328

Pantheon (April 1933). p. 132

Beaux-Arts (January 6, 1933). p. 4

Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika, mit über 300 Kupfertiefdrucktafeln. Wien: Phaidon-Verlag, 1935. p. 198

Naumann, Hans Heinrich "Le premier élève de Martin Schongauer: Mathias Nithart," Archives alsaciennes, XIV (1935). pp. 7, 61-64, 145

Art News (May 16, 1936). p. 6

Art News (June 13, 1936). p. 11

Brooklyn Museum Quarterly (1936). pp. 124-5, 134, 136

Kuhn, Charles Louis, and Arthur Burkhard. A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1936. no. 244

Thieme, Ulrich, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart 29/30 29/30. Leipzig: Seemann, 1999. p. 251

Brooklyn Museum. An Exhibition of European Art, 1450-1500. 1936. cat. no. 38

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. cat. no. 190, pl. XLII

"Les Amants Trépassés, Peinture de Grünewald," Aesculape, XXVI (1937). p. 192

Musée des beaux arts de Strasbourg. Catalogue des peintures anciennes. Strasbourg: Édition des Musées de la Ville, 1938. p. 11, cat. no. 10

Life Magazine (February 7, 1938). p. 30

Marquand, Eleanor C. "Plant Symbolism in the Unicorn Tapestries." Parnassus 10, no. 5 (1938). p. 3 www.jstor.org

Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art (July 1939). p. 127

Tietze, Hans. Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939. p. 198

Masterpieces of Art (official souvenir, guide, and picture book of exhibition at World Fair (publ. By Art News, New York, 1939). pl. 52

Janson, Horst W. "A "Memento Mori" among Early Italian Prints." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 3, no. 3/4 (1940). p. 246 www.jstor.org

Cleveland Museum of Art, and William Mathewson Milliken. Masterpieces of Art from the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs; The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 7 Through March 7, 1940. 1940. cat. no. 140

Gibson, Katharine. Pictures to Grow Up With. New York: Studio Publications, 1942. p. 108

Shoolman, Regina, and Charles E. Slatkin. The Enjoyment of Art in America, A Survey of the Permanent Collections of Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics & Decorative Arts in American and Canadian Museums: Being an Introduction to the Masterpieces of Art from Prehistoric to Modern Times. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1942. pl. 41

Francis, Henry S. "The Lovers: A Swabian Gothic Picture of Secular Life in the Fifteenth Century," Gazette des Beaux-Arts XXIV (1943). pp. 343-354

Kertesz, M. Wagner de. Historia universal de las joyas. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Centurion, 1945. p. 387

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 42 archive.org

Musper, Heinrich Theodor "Ein Ulmer Verlöbnisbild," Die Kunst und das Schöne Heim XLVII (1949). pp. 204-5

Lewis, L. "Pictures of Germany in New York," Staats-Zeiting und Herold (Oct. 11, 1949).

Wentzel, Hans. Form und Inhalt; kunstgeschichtliche Studien, Otto Schmitt zum 60. Geburtstag am 13. Dezember 1950 dargebracht von seinen Freunden. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1950. p. 260

Syndicus, Eduard "Hochzeit und Tod - ein wiederentdecktes Bild," Zeitschrift für Kunstwissenschaft VI (1952). pp. 48-9

Baldass, Ludwig. Jan Van Eyck. New York: Phaidon Publishers; distributed by Garden City Books, 1952. p. 73, n. 3

Castelli, Enrico. Cristianesimo e ragion di stato: l'umanesimo e il demoniaco nell'arte : atti del II. Congresso Internazionale di Studi Umanistici. Roma: Bocca, 1953. p. 254, pl. 28

Stange, Alfred. Deutsche Malerei der Gotik. Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1952. pp. 8, 9, 36, pl. 13

Buchner, Ernst. Das deutsche Bildnis der Spätgotik und der frühen Dürerzeit. Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1953. pp. 170-1

Haug, Hans, "Les Origines de l'element demoniaque: Grunewald," Ati del II Congresso Internazionale di Studi Umanistici. Part II: l'Umanesimo e il Demoniaco nell'arte (Rome 1953). p. 254, pl. 28

Francis, Henry S. "Early German Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art," American-German Review XXI/2 (1954-55). p. 8

Bergström, Ingvar "Disguised Symbolism in Madonna Pictures and Still Life Part II”, Burlington Magazine XCVII (1955). p. 346, n.40

Rubens, Peter Paul, and Wolfgang Schöne. DIE GEISSBLATTLAUBE. STUTTGART: RECLAM, 1956. p. 12

Swarzenski, Hanns. "A Painting of the Man of Sorrows." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 54, no. 298 (1956). pp. 82-7 www.jstor.org

Behling, Lottlisa. Die Pflanze in der mittelalterlichen Tafelmalerei. Weimar: H. Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1957. p. 77, pl. 86

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 457 archive.org

Art News (March 1958). p. 25

Hutchison, Jane Campbell. The Development of the Double Portrait in Northern European Painting of the Fifteenth Century. 1958. pp. 58-64, pl. XXX

Frankfurter, Alfred "Cleveland: Model Museum for a Modern Cosmopolis," Art News LVII (March 1958). p. 25, fig. 3

Victor Beyer, "La Peinture Alsacienne à L'Aube du XVIe Siècle," L'Information D'Histoire de L'Art V (1960). pp. 18, 20

Musper, H. Theodor. Gotische Malerei nördlich der Alpen. Köln: M. DuMont Schauberg, 1961. pp. 90-1

Book of the Month Club News (Mid-summer, 1961). p. 11 & front cover

Koepf, Hans. Schwäbische Kunstgeschichte Bd. 3. Bd. 3. 1963. p. 108

Schloss, Martin F. "Grünewald and the Chicago Portrait," The Art Journal XXIII (Fall 1963). pp. 11-12

Mann, Thomas, and Klaus Schröter. In Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1964. p. 147

Payne, Blanche. History of Costume: From the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper & Row, 1965. pp. 228-9

Stange, Alfred. Deutsche spätgotische Malerei, 1430-1500. Königstein im Taunus: Langewiesche, 1965. pp. 7, 40

Boucher, François. Histoire du costume en Occident, de l'antiquité a nos jours, [par] Franc̜ois Boucher. [Paris]: Flammarion, 1965. p. 214, fig. 412

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 67 archive.org

Wolfgang Beeh, "Eine spätgotische mittelrheinische Handschrift Über die Liebe zu erwerben und die Liebe zu verschmähen," Kunst in Hessen und am Mittelrhein VI (1966). pp. 59-60, fig. 3

Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967. p. 109

Storia Della Musica CXLV (Milano, 1967). p. 26

Moore, Janet Gaylord. The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art. 1968. p. 30

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 67 archive.org

Unesco. Catalogue de reproductions de peintures, 1860 à 1969 = Catalogue of reproductions of paintings, 1860 to 1969 = Catálogo de reproducciones de pinturas, 1860-1969. Paris: Unesco, 1969. p. 91, no. 9

"The Home Forum," Christian Science Monitor (May 6, 1969). p. 8

Schädler, Alfred "Beiträge zum Werk Hans Multschers," Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums (1969). p. 61, n. 72

Musper, H. Theodor. Altdeutsche Malerei. [Köln]: M. DuMont Schauberg, 1970. p. 20, pl. 13

Deneke, Bernward. Hochzeit. München: Prestel-Verlag, 1971. p. 17, pl. 1

Ursula Binder-Hagelstange, "Tod in Strassburg. Drei Begegnungen," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (January 1, 1972).

New York Garphic Society. Fine Art Reproductions of Old & Modern Masters: A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Art Through the Ages. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1972. p. 58

"At the Turn of the Year" International Scala (Frankfurt, January 1972). p. 8

Harksen, Sibylle. Die Frau im Mittelalter. Leipzig: Edition Leipzig, 1974. plate 111

Cleveland Museum of Art. European Painting Before 1500: Catalogue of Paintings. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. cat. no. 12

Mann, Thomas, Hans Wysling, and Yvonne Schmidlin. Bild und Text bei Thomas Mann: eine Dokumentation. 1975. p. 408

Cloisters (Museum), and Margaret B. Freeman. The Unicorn Tapestries. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art : distributed by Dutton, 1976. p. 114, fig. 141

Johnson, Mark M. "Portrait Painting-An Image of Man," Arts and Activities (September 1977). pp. 33-4, fig. 2

Blakey, G. G. The Diamond. New York: Paddington Press, 1977. p. 10

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 77 archive.org

Hagstrum, Jean "Esteem enlivened by Desire. The Ideal of Friendship between Men and Women in Western Culture," Arts and Sciences (Northwestern University, Fall 1978). p. 17

Kauffmann, Hans. Peter Paul Rubens: Bildgedanke und künstlerische Form : Aufsätze und Reden. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1978. pp. 35-6, n. 7, fig. 13

Wirth, Jean. La Jeune fille et la mort: recherches sur les thèmes macabres dans l'art germanique de la Renaissance. Genève: Droz, 1979. pp. 41, 42, no. 98, fig. 31

Smith, David R. The Dutch Double and Pair Portrait: Studies in the Imagery of Marriage in the Seventeenth Century. Ann Arbor, Mich: University Microfilms International, 1979.

Titian. Tiziano e Venezia: convegno internazionale di studi, Venezia, 1976. 370 illustrazioni in nero e 16 a colori. Vicenza: N. Pozza, 1980. p. 49, n. 11

Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Zur Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts: 24 Bildwerke im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Köln: Museen der Stadt, 1980. p. 60

Rumsey, Thomas R. Men and Women of the Renaissance and Reformation, 1300-1600. Wellesley Hills, Mass: Independent School Press, 1981. p. 351

Horn, Marilyn J., and Lois M. Gurel. The Second Skin: An Interdisciplinary Study of Clothing. Boston [etc.]: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. p. 79, fig. 3.29

Lawrence, Mary. Lovers, 100 Works of Art Celebrating Romantic Love, with Commentaries by the Distinguished and the Great. New York: A & W Publishers, 1982. pp. 42-3

Russell, Douglas A. Costume History and Style. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1983. p. 165, fig. 10-3

Anzelewsky, Fedja. Dürer-Studien: Untersuchungen zu den ikonographischen und geistesgeschichtlichen Grundlagen seiner Werke zwischen den beiden Italienreisen. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1983. pp. 138, 139, fig. 69

Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. pp. 48-51, fig. 35, no. 27-29

Forker, Charles R. Skull Beneath the Skin: The Achievement of John Webster. Carbondale: Ill, 1986. fig. 6

Jedding-Gesterling, Maria. Hairstyles: A Cultural History of Fashions in Hair from Antiquity Up to the Present Day ; Illustrated with Objects D'art from the Schwarzkopf Collection and International Museums. Hamburg: Hans Schwarzkopf, 1988. p. 62, no. 98

Bertelsmann-Universal-Lexikon "Deutschland" Bd. 4. Bd. 4. 1988. p. 254

Kidwell, Claudia Brush, and Valerie Steele. Men and Women: Dressing the Part. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. p. 7

Campbell, Lorne. Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries. 1990. p. 53, fig. 58

Dülberg, Angelica. Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. 1990. p. 250, no. 213, Tafel 126, no. 266-7

Bertani, Bruna. Il diamante e la sposa: storia del gioiello e dell'abito nuziale. [Milan?]: Edizioni Condé Nast, 1991. p. 6

Šebková-Thaller, Zuzana. Sünde und Versöhnung in Jan van Eycks Hochzeitsbild. Markt Berolzheim: Hernoul-le-Fin Verlag, 1992. p. 207, tafel 185 (#2)

Payne, Blanche, Geitel Winakor, and Jane Farrell-Beck. The History of Costume: From Ancient Mesopotamia Through the Twentieth Century. 1992. p. 239, fig. 10-4

Lightbown, R. W. Mediaeval European Jewellery: With a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria & Albert Museum. [London]: Published by the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1992. p. 10

Šebková-Thaller, Zuzana. Sünde und Versöhnung in Jan van Eycks Hochzeitsbild. Markt Berolzheim: Hernoul-le-Fin Verlag, 1992. p. 207, pl. 185, no. 2

Meadow, Mark A., and Albrecht Dürer. 1992. "The Observant Pedestrian and Albrecht Dürer's Promenade". Art History. 151992: 197-222. pp. 212-214, 216

Payne, Blanche, Geitel Winakor, and Jane Farrell-Beck. The History of Costume: From Ancient Mesopotamia Through the Twentieth Century. 1992. pp. 248, 252, fig. 10-4

Seidel, Linda. Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait: Stories of an Icon. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1993. p. 107, fig. 50

Mellinkoff, Ruth. Outcasts: Signs of Otherness in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Vol. 2, pl. I.50

Seidel, Linda. Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait: Stories of an Icon. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1993. pp. 106-7, fig. 50

Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. p. 268

Mackrell, Alice. An Illustrated History of Fashion: 500 Years of Fashion Illustration. London: B.T. Batsford, 1997. p. 10

Sato, shoichi, and shunichi Ikegami. Nishi yoroppa sekai no keisei. 1997. p. 357

Camille, Michael. The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire. New York: Abrams, 1998. p. 160, no. 146

Schuttwolf, Allmuth, and Angelica Dülberg. Jahreszeiten der Gefühle: das Gothaer Liebespaar und die Minne im Spätmittelalter. Ostfildern bei Stuttgart: G. Hatje, 1998. pp. 168-9, cat. no. 83

Koster, Margaret L. "The Arnolfini double portrait: A simple solution." Apollo. Vol. 158, no. 499 (Sept. 2003). fig. 10, p. 7

Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, and Southwest Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.). Parabola, Myth, Tradition, and the Search for Meaning: Marriage, Spring 2004. Denville, N.J.: Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, 2004. Vol. 19, No. 1, p. 63, 126

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. p. 240, cat. no. 89

Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. pp. 260-261, no. 97

Mcdougal. Mcdougal Littell Literature Grade 9: Mcdougal Littell Literature Arizona. [Place of publication not identified]: Holt Mcdougal, 2008.

Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame (Strasbourg, France), Cécile Dupeux, Barbara Gatineau, and Camille Broucke. Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame: arts du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance. 2013. p. 167

Brilliant, Virginia. "Art and Love in the Middle Ages." In A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe. Baltimore: The Walters Art Museum, 2016. Mentioned: p. 117-131; Reproduced; p. 126, fig. 8.10

Poeschel, Sabine. Die Kunst der Liebe: Meisterwerke aus 2000 Jahren. Darmstadt: WBG, (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft), 2018. Mentioned: p. 54; Reproduced: p. 55, abb. 36.

Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Mentioned: p. 200-203; Reproduced: p. 201

Mikolic, Amanda. CMA Collection Highlight: A Bridal Couple and the Enduring Legend of the Forget-Me-Not. The Cleveland Museum of Art CMA Thinker Blog. (2018) medium.com

Büchsel, Martin, Hilja Droste and Berit Wagner. Kunsttransfer und Formgenese in der Kunst am Mittelrhein: 1400-1500. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag,2019. Reproduced: p. 178, taf. 17; p. 242, Abb. 4; Mentioned: p. 241

Les Amants Trepasses, Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg (2019). www.musees.strasbourg.eu

Exhibition history

European Art 1450-1500, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, (May 8- June 8,1936).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).

Masterpieces of Art from the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-March 7, 1940).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Jahreszeiten der Gefüle - Das Gothaer Liebespaar und die Kunst der Hohen Minne im Spätmittelalter. Schlossmuseum, Gotha (organizer) (May 2-June 28, 1998).

Object in Focus: A Bridal Couple. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 12-May 12, 2002).

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).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=A Bridal Couple|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1932.179|year=c. 1470|access-date=26 March 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.

You are here:

Images

A Bridal Couple

A Bridal Couple

Southern Germany, 15th century

Location

Download and Share

Did you know?

Description

Video

Contact us