MEDIA INFORMATION

 
 
COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
MMA_.1991.156
AMICA Library Year:
2000
Object Type:
Textiles
Creator Nationality:
European; Northern European; German
Creator Name-CRT:
German
Title:
Altar Frontal with Man of Sorrows and Saints
View:
Full View
Creation Date:
ca. 1465
Creation Start Date:
1463
Creation End Date:
1467
Materials and Techniques:
Wool, linen, and metallic thread (gilt membrane on silk) on linen
Classification Term:
Textiles-Tapestries
Dimensions:
35 1/4 x 65 1/2 in. (89.5 x 166.4 cm)
AMICA Contributor:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location:
New York, New York, USA
ID Number:
1991.156
Credit Line:
The Cloisters Collection, 1985
Rights:
Context:

This altar frontal depicts Christ as the Man of Sorrows displaying the wounds from his Crucifixion. He wears the Crown of Thorns as well as the cloak in which he was dressed by Roman soldiers prior to his execution. A popular devotional image in the late Middle Ages, the Man of Sorrows incites the viewer's empathy with Christ's suffering. Here, Christ is accompanied by Saint John the Baptist and the Virgin on the left, and by saints John the Evangelist and Jerome on the right. The arms of the Nuremberg citizen Martin Pessler (died 1463) and his wife, Margarete Toppler (died 1469), appear at the bottom. This tapestry may well be one of the seven altar frontals Margarete is known to have given to the Lorenzkirche in Nuremberg, a parish church that was richly endowed by the city's merchant class in the late Middle Ages.

Related Image Identifier Link:
MMA_.cl1991.156.R.tif

Altar Frontal with Man of Sorrows and Saints

Altar Frontal with Man of Sorrows and Saints