The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 24, 2023

Arm Reliquary of the Apostles

c. 1190

This object has related works. See Medallion with the Bust of Christ ("The Cumberland Medallion"), from the Guelph Treasure; Monstrance with the "Paten of Saint Bernward"; The So-called Horn of Saint Blaise; Book-Shaped Reliquary; Ceremonial Cross of Countess Gertrude; Monstrance with a Relic of Saint Sebastian; Ceremonial Cross of Count Liudolf; Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude

Germany, Lower Saxony, Hildesheim, Romanesque period, late 12th century

Gilt silver, champlevé enamel, oak

Overall: 51 x 14 x 9.2 cm (20 1/16 x 5 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1930.739

Location

106C Medieval Treasury

Fun Fact

Reliquaries were prized not for the opulence that you see, but for the items that they held. They enshrined items associated with saints, like a piece of clothing they wore or a small portion of their remains. In this case, an arm bone is encased within.

Description

Taking the form of a clothed lower arm with an outstretched hand, this reliquary from the Guelph Treasure appropriately enshrines a piece of an unidentified saint’s arm bone. Arm reliquaries like this one served as liturgical props; during religious services and processions, the clergy used them to bless and touch the faithful, thus making the presence of the saint more palpable and immediate. The apostle busts that decorate this arm reliquary seem to indicate that the relic it contains is that of an apostle. Duke Henry the Lion, a major patron of the church of Saint Blaise, is known to have received such relics from the Byzantine emperor Manuel I (1143-1180) upon his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Provenance
Monastery of St. Cyriakus, Brunswick
Treasury, Cathedral of St. Blaise, Brunswick
House of Brunswick-Lüneburg (part of Guelph Treasure)
?-1930
(Goldschmidt Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1930-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Neumann, Wilhelm Anton, and Wenzel August Neumann. Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braundschweig-Lüneburg. Wien: Alfred Hölder, 1891. no. 47
Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main. Stadel-Jahrbuch. Munchen: Prestel Verlag, 1921. pp. 326, 329-331, 333-4, 338, 381
Bossert, Helmuth Theodor. Geschichte des Kunstgewerbes aller Zeiten und Völker, in Verbindung mit zahlreichen Fachgelehrten herausgegeben von Dr. H. Th. Bossert. Berlin: E. Wasmuth, a.g, 1928. p. 289
Guelph Treasure, Catalogue of the Exhibition. [NEW YORK, NEW YORK]: [GOLDSCHMIDT, LUCIEN, GALLERY], 1930. Cat. no. 30, pls 65-6
Falke, Otto von, Robert Schmidt, and Georg Swarzenski. Der Welfenschatz. Der Reliquienschatz des Braunschweiger Domes aus dem Besitze des herzoglichen Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt a. g, 1930.
Eckhardt, Ferdinand. 1930. “Exhibition of the Guelph Treasure in Frankfort and Berlin.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 12 (October): 305–6. p. 306 search.ebscohost.com
Falke, Otto von "Hildesheimer Goldschmiedewerke des 12. Jahrhunderts im Welfenschatz," Pantheon vol 5 (June 1930). p. 274
Milliken, William Mathewson, "The Acquisition of Six Objects from the Guelph Treasure for the Cleveland Museum of Art: Foreword." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 9 (1930) p. 183 www.jstor.org
Art Digest (September 1930). p. 5
Illus. London News (November 29, 1930). p. 5
Frankfurter, A.M. Antiquariun (Dec. 1930). p. 66
Milliken, William Mathewson "The Guelph Treasure" The American Magazine of Art 22, no. 3 (1931). p. 168, 171 www.jstor.org
ARTS Magazine 29 (October 1, 1954). pp. 10-11
Leitermann,Heinz, Deutsche Goldschmide-Kunst (Stuttgart, 1954). p. 123, pl. 19
Milliken, WIlliam "The Guelph Treasure in Cleveland" The American-German Review (Dec. 1955-Jan. 1956). pp. 5-10
ART News (Summer, 1957). p. 46
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 104 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 50 archive.org
Swarzenski, Hanns. Monuments of Romanesque Art: The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe. London: Faber, 1967. cat. no. 212, pl. 212, figs. 496-98
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 50 archive.org
Elsen, Albert E. The Partial Figure in Modern Sculpture; From Rodin to 1969. 1969.
Hoffmann, Konrad, and Florens Deuchler. The Year 1200: A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 12 Through May 10, 1970. 1970. p. 104, no. 110
Sauerländer, Willibald. ""The Year 1200," a Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. February 12-May 10, 1970." The Art Bulletin 53, no. 4 (1971) p. 515-6, fig. 6 www.jstor.org
Württembergisches Landesmuseum, and Reiner Haussherr. Die Zeit der Staufer: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur : Katalog der Ausstellung [Stuttgart, Altes Schloss und Kunstgebäude, 26. März-5. Juni 1977]. Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum, 1977. no. 578, p. 448
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 56 archive.org
Avril, François, Xavier Barral i Altet, and Danielle Gaborit-Chopin. Le temps des Croisades. [Paris]: Gallimard, 1982.
Strayer, Joseph R. Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 1982. p. 67
Benjamin, Susan. Enamels. [New York]: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1983. p. 66, no. 51
Van der Marck, Jan. In Quest of Excellence: Civic Pride, Patronage, Connoisseurship. Miami, Fla., U.S.A.: The Center, 1984. p. 72
De Winter, Patrick M. "The Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 1 (1985). pp. 82, 87- 88, 131, 133-134, 136, 140; no. 27, nn.64, 96, fig. 111; color plates XIV-XVIII www.jstor.org
Turner, Evan H. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. p. 90
Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. pp. 203-6, 214, fig. 226, 292
Luckhardt, Jochen, and Franz Niehoff. Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235 : Katalog der Ausstellung, Braunschweig 1995. München: Hirmer, 1995. p. 247, D60
Ehlers, Joachim, and Dietrich Kötzsche. Der Welfenschatz und sein Umkreis. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1998. taf. 19; abb. 2, 7-8, pp. 355, 362-3
Brandt, Michael. Abglanz des Himmels: Romanik in Hildesheim : Katalog zur Ausstellung des Dom-Museums Hildesheim, Hildesheim 2001. Regensburg: Schnell + Steiner, 2001. p. 148, fig. 55
Buser, Thomas. Experiencing Art Around Us. Australia: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. p. 38, fig. 2-14
Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 122-3, no. 39
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. 123, cat. no. 38
Fliegel, Stephen N. Resplendent Faith: Liturgical Treasuries of the Middle Ages. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2009. p. 54, fig. 47
Bagnoli, Martina. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. Cat. no. 41
Weinryb, Ittai. "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe". West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture 18(2) (2011). p. 284
Mackenzie, Sophie. "Treasures of Heaven" Minerva vol. 22, No. 4 (2011). pp. 36-9, fig. 11
Gertsman, Elina. Worlds Within: Opening the Medieval Shrine Madonna. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015. Reproduced: pl. 15
Klein, Holger A. "Das Apostel-Armreliquiar aus dem Welfenschatz in Cleveland und der Typus der Armreliquiare." In Typen mittelalterlicher Reliquiare zwischen Innovation und Tradition: Beiträge einer Tagung des Kunsthistorischen Instituts der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel am 22. Oktober 2016. Klaus Gereon Beuckers, and Dorothee Kemper, 23-46. Regensburg: Schnell + Steiner; Hildesheim: Bernward.Medien, 2017. Reproduced: p. 24-30
Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Mentioned: p. 30-33; Reproduced: p. 31
Freundeskreis des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums. Hommage: Renate Eikelmann. München: Sieveking Verlag, 2018. Reproduced: p. 60
Thümmel, Hans Georg. Ikonologie der christlichen Kunst. 2019. Mentioned; p. 112
Exhibition history

Guelph Museum, Hanover, Germany (1861-66).

Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie, Vienna, Austria (1869).

Städelsche Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany (1930).

Goldschmidt Gallery, New York, NY (1931).

Zeit der Staufer I, Würtemburgisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, (March-August 1977).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

Die Zeit der Staufer: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur (The Staufer Period: History, Art, Culture). Landesmuseum Württemberg Stuttgart, 70173 Stuttgart, Germany (organizer) (March 26-June 5, 1977).

All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 23, 1994-January 8, 1995).

Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit (Henry the Lion and his time). Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum (organizer) (August 6-November 12, 1995).

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).

Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 2010-January 17, 2011); The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD (February 13-May 15, 2011); The British Museum, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (June 23-October 9, 2011).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.739