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Altarpiece with Relics
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Götz covers every surface in gold leaf, giving each part of the object equal importance, rather than simply framing a central picture. In this distinctively Central European approach, figural narrative is subordinate to the overall ensemble. Götz designed this object to rest on top of an altar, probably in front of a larger painted or sculpted decorative scheme. The work contains relics seen through the small windows on the perimeter. These small remains of holy figures demonstrate the persistence of a medieval Catholic tradition well into the 1700s.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineAltarpiece with Relics, c. 1735–40. Joseph Matthias Götz (German, 1696–1760), and Workshop. Gilded wood, with relics in niches: gilded wood, mother-of-pearl, ebony, red silk, gold wire, seed pearls, rock crystal, pen and ink on paper; overall: 165.1 x 108 x 20 cm (65 x 42 1/2 x 7 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1964.357
