The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 3, 2023

Plaque from a Chasse for Relics of Saint Thomas Becket

1220–25

Master G. Alpais

(French)

and Workshop

France, Limousin, Limoges, Gothic period, 13th century

Copper: gilded and engraved; champlevé enamel

Overall: 16.9 x 28.5 x 0.5 cm (6 5/8 x 11 1/4 x 3/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1951.449

Location

106C Medieval Treasury

Description

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was brutally murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. The immediate popularity of Becket’s cult is reflected in the large number of enamel reliquaries produced in late 12th- and early 13th-century Limoges workshops to house relics associated with the archbishop, who was canonized only three years after his death. This plaque, which pairs a scene depicting the Martyrdom of Thomas Becket with one of Christ’s Crucifixion, once formed the principal face of such a reliquary.

Provenance
Tolllin
M. G. Chalandon, Lyons, France
(Adolph Loewi (1888-1977), Los Angeles, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1951-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine, Geneviève François, Elisabeth Antoine, and Danielle Gaborit-Chopin. Émaux méridionaux: catalogue international de l'œuvre de Limoges. 1987. 96-7, IE2 no. 7
Migeon, Gaston "La Collection de M.G. Chalandon" Les Arts (June 1905). p.19, 28, no.3
Milliken, William M. “A Champlevé Enamel Plaque.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 1 (1952). p. 7 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 117 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. 46 archive.org
Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 116-117 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 46 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 51 archive.org
Notin, Véronique. Valérie et Thomas Becket: de l'influence des princes Plantagenêt dans l'œuvre de Limoges. Limoges: Musée municipal de l'Evêché/Musée de l'émail, 1999. no. 1, p. 61
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. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 158-159, no. 54
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. 164, repr. p. 165, no. 58
Bagnoli, Martina. Treasures of heaven: saints, relics, and devotion in medieval Europe. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. Reproduced: cat. no. 101, p. 188
Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle, Frédéric Tixier, Jean Marie Guillouët, and Dany Sandron. L'œuvre de Limoges et sa diffusion: trésors, objets, collections. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2011. 96-7, IE2 no. 7
Munns, John. Cross and Culture in Anglo-Norman England: Theology, Imagery, Devotion. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2016. Reproduced: p. 126-127, pl. 12
Exhibition history

Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007), the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008) and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2/13/2009 - 6/7/2009): "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art"

CMA, October 17, 2010 - January 17, 2011, Walters Art Museum February 13 - May 15, 2011: "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe," cat. no. 101.

Images of the Saints. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (March 5-April 4, 1965).

Treasures of Medieval France. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1966-January 29, 1967).

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).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.449