Altarpiece of the Virgin and Child

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1460/70

Spain, El Burgo de Osma

The only surviving embroidered altarpiece from Spain, this sumptuous work re-creates the characteristic elements of a painted retable from the Spanish kingdom of Castile. They include the base, or banco, with the Resurrection at its center, and a cult image of the enthroned Virgin and Child crowned by a small scene of the Crucifixion. In the wide fame, angels’ heads alternate with the owner’s arms, mimicking the dust guard or guardapolvos typical of painted altarpieces. Pedro de Montoya, the owner, was the active and worldly bishop of the diocese of Osma; he no doubt appreciated both the portability and rich surface offered by the embroidery.

The Abegg-Stiftung, a private foundation in Riggisberg, Switzerland, generously undertook the altarpiece’s conservation as a gift in 2016.

Status: On View, Gallery 237
Department: Textiles

Title: Altarpiece of the Virgin and Child
Place: Spain (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1460–1470
Medium: Linen plain weave ground appliquéd with linen and silk plain weaves and silk velvet; embroidered with silk floss and creped threads, gilt- and-silvered-metal-strip-wrapped silk threads, seed pearls and metal spangles
Inscriptions: Inscriptions: upper: "O Homo Recordare Quia Pro Te ISH Hec Tormenta Pasvs Est" (Remeber, O Man, that Christ suffered these pains for Thee) lower (possibly): "Resvrexit Dominvs Ivstvs Vere et Aparivit Simoni" (The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon) Bishops coat of arms
Dimensions: Retable (a): 167 × 203.5 cm (65 3/4 × 80 1/8 in.) Altar Frontal (b): 89.2 × 211.8 cm (35 1/8 × 83 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Chauncey McCormick and Mrs. Richard Ely Danielson
Reference Number: 1927.1779a-b
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/41449/manifest.json

Nicholas Rabal, Espania: sus Monumentos Y Artes —su Naturaleza e Historia: Soria (Barcelona, 1889), 352-355 (detail, drawing ill.).
Juan Cabré y Aguilô, “El retablo bordado, de Don Pedro de Montoya, Obispo de Osma,” Archivo Espanol de Arte y Arguelogia 5 (1929): 1-20 (ill.).
“Cathedral del Burgo de Osma.” In Boletin de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones (Aug.-Oct. 1903): 22, 170-2, figs. 126-128.
Art Institute of Chicago, Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 34, no. 1 (Jan. 1940): 5 (ill.).
Ruth Groenwoldt, “Florentiner Stickereien in den Inventaren des Herzogs von Berry und der Herzoege von Burgund.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz vol. 10, Heft 1 (May 1961).
Mildred Davison, “An Altarpiece from Burgo de Osma,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, no. 3 (1968): 108-124 (ill.).
Christa Charlotte Mayer, Masterpieces of Western Textiles from The Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1969), 128, pl. 98 (ill.).
Virginia Churchill Bath, Embroidery Masterworks: Classic Patterns and Techniques for Contemporary Application from the Textile Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1972), 19-27 (ill.)
“Little Known Treasures of The Art Institute of Chicago,” Chicago Magazine (May 1979).
Leonie von Wilckens, Die textilen Künste: von der Spätantike bis um 1500 (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1991), 254-5.
Christa C. Mayer Thurman, Textiles in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1992), 27, 28-9, 144 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), 226-7 (ill.).
Devotion and Splendor: Medieval Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 30, no. 2 (2004): 72-73, cat. no. 48 (ill.).
Abegg-Stiftung Riggisberg, “The Embroidered Retable from Chicago: An Insight into the Conservation in the Abegg-Stiftung.” 2016, 5:10.
Evelin Wetter and Martha Wolff, eds., The Embroidered Altarpiece from El Burgo de Osma, Riggisberger Berichte 25 (Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2022).

Art Institute of Chicago, The Masterpiece of the Month: Spanish Embroidered Altarpiece, Oct. 1–Oct. 30, 1940.
Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Decorative Arts, Robert Allerton Wing, 1940-at least 1946.
Medieval Art, 1968.
Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of Western Textiles, Jan. 25–Mar. 2, 1969.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute Centennial Celebration, 1979.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 142, Spiritual Expressions: Art for Private Contemplation and Public Celebration, Nov. 22, 1995-Mar. 17, 1996.
Art Institute of Chicago, Devotion and Splendor: Medieval Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 25, 2004-Jan. 2, 2005, exh cat.
Riggisberg, Switzerland, Abegg-Stiftung, Embroidered Retable from Chicago, Sept. 22–Nov. 13, 2016.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Deering Family Galleries, Gallery 237, Mar. 17, 2017–present.

Pedro de Montoya, (died 1475), Soria, Spain [appointed Bishop of Burgo de Osma between 1454 and 1475; this and the following according to Davidson 1968]; given to the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma, Spain, probably between 1454 and 1475 [the alterpiece is listed in the inventory of the cathedral in 1600 in the chapel of St. Peter]. Lionel Harris (1862-1943), Spanish Art Gallery, London, 1916; sold to French and Company, New York [Museum Studies 2004: 95]; sold to Charles Deering (1852–1927), Sitges, Spain, then Miami, Nov. 11, 1961 [note on incoming receipt; on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago from Nov. 22, 1923, incoming receipt, R1242, loan number 3244.23; copy in curatorial object file]; by descent to his daughters, Marion McCormick (1886-1965; born Marion Deering; also Mrs. Chauncey McCormick) and Barbara Danielson (1888-1982; born Barbara Deering; also Mrs. Richard Ely Danielson, 1888–1982); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1927.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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