The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 29, 2023

Mourning Mary

c. 1710–40

Austria, Vienna

Stone with traces of original color

Overall: 130.2 x 59.3 x 43.2 cm (51 1/4 x 23 3/8 x 17 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1967.229

Location

214 Central and Northern European

Description

This figure’s orientation suggests it may have been part of a Crucifixion group, situated to the left of Christ with another figure to the right to balance the composition. Fingers knotted in prayer, lips parted in anguish, the Virgin appears to recoil from the sight of her son on the cross. Her contorted pose and agitated draperies are visible manifestations of her grief. Obvious signs of wear to the stone suggest that the group may have been set outside of a church, perhaps atop pillars.

Provenance
Kurt Rossacher (Salzburg, Austria), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.
Citations
Hawley, Henry. "Annual Report for 1967: Decorative Arts." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LV, no. 6 (June, 1968): 174-177. Mentioned: P. 174, 177
Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1968." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 1 (1969): 3-50. Referenced: cat. no. 54, p. 46, Reproduced: p. 20 www.jstor.org
"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly XXXII, no. 2 (Summer 1969): 207-234. Reproduced: p. 226
Ditner, David Charles. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century European Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Dissertation. Cleveland, OH: Cast Western Reserve University,1986. reproduced: p. 436, fig. 58a; Mentioned: p.432-436
Leonard, Anne, and Joyce Suechun Cheng. The Tragic Muse: Art and Emotion, 1700-1900. Chicago, IL: Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2011. Reproduced: p. 13, fig. 2
Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1967.229