The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 29, 2023

Reliquary Box with Scenes from the Life of John the Baptist

1300s

Part of a set. See all set records

Byzantium, Constantinople, late Byzantine period, 14th century

Tempera and gold on wood

Overall: 9 x 23.5 x 9 cm (3 9/16 x 9 1/4 x 3 9/16 in.)

Gift of Bruce Ferrini in memory of Robert P. Bergman 1999.229.a

Location

105 Byzantine

Description

John the Baptist--the first person to recognize Christ as the promised savior and the one who baptized him in the Jordan River--was one of the Byzantine Empire’s most revered saints. This box shows four scenes from the saint’s life: John’s martyrdom, Christ’s baptism, John’s birth, and the announcement of his birth to his parents. It probably once housed one of the saint’s relics; several were kept in churches and monasteries in Constantinople, including fragments of his skull and right arm and locks of his blood-clotted hair.

Citations
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. 90-91, no. 26
Bagnoli, Martina. Treasures of heaven: saints, relics, and devotion in medieval Europe. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010. Reproduced: cat. no. 52, p. 93
Exhibition history

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (3/15/2004 - 7/4/2004): "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)"

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. 52

Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 15-July 5, 2004).

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).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1999.229.a