Keywords: Bohemian - Reliquary with the Man of Sorrows - Walters 57700 - Three Quarter Left.jpg The image of the Man of Sorrows is a distillation of the events of Christ's Passion Christ contemplates with sorrow the instruments of his suffering the cross and hammer whips nails column of the Flagellation and the dice thrown by the soldiers for his garments The gabled container held by an angel once housed a thorn believed to be from Christ's Crown of Thorns while the hinged cross and column probably held pieces of wood believed to be from Christ's cross and from the column against which he was whipped According to an inscription on the base the reliquary was ordered by the bishop of Olomouc in Moravia to house the Holy Thorn It was surely a present for Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV Both men's coats of arms those of Moravia and Bohemia are on the base and the thorn was already in the emperor's famous collection of relics as a gift from the king of France As Charles reigned over both Bohemia and Moravia only from 1347 to 1349 the piece dates to this time The sophisticated workmanship is characteristic of objects created for the imperial court in Prague between 1347 1349 Medieval gilded silver silver champlevé enamel glass paste imitation ruby H 11 5/8 x W at wings 8 3/8 x D 5 in 29 53 x 21 27 x 12 7 cm accession number 57 700 29555 Jacques Seligmann Paris date and mode of acquisition unknown Henry Walters Baltimore June 9 1903 by purchase Walters Art Museum Henry Walters Acquired by Henry Walters 1903 Transcription Majuscule inscription on the pedestal HANC MONSTRANCIAM CUM SPINA CHORONE DOMINI DNS IOHANNES OLOMUCZENSIS EPISCOPUS PREPARARI FECIT Translation John the bishop of Olmütz commissioned this monstrance with the thorn of the crown of Christ The Way to Heaven Relic Veneration in the Middle Ages Museum Catharijneconvent Utrecht; Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam Amsterdam 2000-2001 The International Style The Arts in Europe Around 1400 The Walters Art Gallery Baltimore 1962 Kaiser Karl IV 1316-1378 Bayerisches Nationalmuseum Munich 1978 Die Parler und der Schöne Stil 1350-1400 Schnütgen-Museum Cologne 1978-1979 Reliquaries and Ritual Medieval Objects of Devotion The Walters Art Gallery Baltimore 1984-1985 Highlights from the Collection The Walters Art Gallery Baltimore 1998-2001 Prague The Crown of Bohemia The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York; Prague Castle Prague 1 2005-2006 Silesia - A Pearl in the Bohemian Crown Three Periods of Flourishing Artistic Relations Waldstein Riding School Prague Prague 2006-2007 Treasures of Heaven The Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland; The Walters Art Museum Baltimore; The British Museum London 2010-2011 place of origin Prague Czech Republic Walters Art Museum license Bohemian Reliquary with the Man of Sorrows in the Walters Art Museum Medieval reliquaries Bohemia Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs artist review |