German, Lower Saxony (Brunswick)
From the treasury of the Church of Saint Blaise
Altar Cross, c. 1326 (cross); 15th century (foot)
Silver, silver gilt, wood
Height: 7 3/4 in. (without foot)
Gift of the Antiquarian Society, 1931.263
Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Not on Display
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut; Berlin, Deutsche Gesellschaft; New York, Reinhardt and Goldschmidt Galleries; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum of Art (now the Philadelphia Museum of Art); the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Detroit Institute of Arts; The Art Institute of Chicago; and San Francisco, The M. H. de Young Museum, The Guelph Treasure, 1930-1931 (at Art Institute of Chicago, March 31st to April 20th, 1931), cat. 50.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Antiquarian Society, The First One Hundred Years, April 23-June 19, 1977, cat. 319.
Art Institute of Chicago, Medieval Decorative Arts from Chicago Collections, October 2, 1985-January 5, 1986.
University Park, PA, Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, and Pittsburgh, PA, The Frick Art Museum, Medieval Art in America 1800 - 1940, Patterns of Collecting, 1996, cat. 70.
Publication History
G. W. Molanus, Lipsanographia sive Thesaurus sanctarum Reliquiarum Electoralis Brunsvico-Luneburgicus (Hanover, 1697), p. 23, no. 30.
W. A. Neumann, Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Vienna, 1891), pp. 109-11, no. 6.
O von Falke, R. Schmidt, and G. Swarzenski, The Guelph Treasure: The Sacred Relics of Brunswick Cathedral Formerly in the Possession of the House of Brunswick- Lüneburg (Frankfurt am Main, 1930), pp. 80 and 183, no. 50, pl. 89..
Bessie Bennett, "Some Ecclesiastical Objects," Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 25, 6 (September 1931), p. 79.
Patrick M. De Winter, The Sacral Treasures of the Guelphs, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, 1 (March 1985), p. 118, no. 44, fig. 148.
Patrick M. De Winter, Der Welfenschatz: Zeugnis sakraler Kunst des Deutschen Mittelalters (Hanover, 1986), pp. 119-120, fig. 139, and 173, no. 44.
Ownership History
From the treasury of the Cathedral of Saint Blaise, Brunswick (Braunschweig), where it remained until the late 16th century; by descent through the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, to Duke Ernst August II of Cumberland, before 1929; [treasury objects were brokered for sale by a consortium of dealers based in Berlin and Frankfurt: Julius F. Goldschmidt, Z. M. Hackenbroich, and Saemy Rosenbaum]; sold to Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, Chicago, in 1931 [see Art News, January 17, 1931, p. 60]; gift to the Art Institute, 1962 [see Annual Report, 1961-1962, pp. 14-15].