Master of the Tucher Altarpiece
1444
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Altarpiece with The Passion of Christ is a 1444 unspecified by Master of the Tucher Altarpiece, a Northern Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a tall wooden panel split into small scenes—Christ whipped, carrying the cross, nailed up, and taken down. These panels were once the doors of a church altar. Each tiny picture tells one moment of the story, like a comic strip for people who couldn’t read. Monks used them to teach the same story over and over. If you want to see more quiet, crowded scenes like this, look up subject: germany.
The visual focus of this altarpiece is the suffering and death of Christ on the cross. So-called Passion cycles in art include the events leading up to and following the Crucifixion, not only as single subjects but as scenes meant to be read in sequence. Passion cycles were promoted by the two great teaching orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, for whom this subject represented the main religious drama of their churches, and also by the German mystics who advocated private contemplation on the humanity and suffering of Christ. The original context for this altarpiece remains unknown,…
In 2012 the museum's conservation department created a new frame that was stylistically more appropriate for this altarpiece.
Read the full account in the museum source.
The Master of the Tucher Altarpiece (fl c. 1430–1450) was a German painter active in Nuremberg. His name is derived from a painting which has been in that city's Frauenkirche since the early 19th century; this has been…
See the richer artist page
