Leaf from a Missal: The Crucifixion (Frontispiece for the Canon of the Mass)
c. 1440–1450
Medium
ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
Dimensions
sheet: 33.6 × 25.5 cm · framed: 63.5 × 48.3 cm
Classification
Manuscript
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Accession Number
1959.254
Tags
About this artwork
This splendid crucifixion scene originally served as the canon illustration in a liturgical missal. The open landscape is remarkable since it is not found in Dutch missals before the end of the 1500s. The large number of figures at the foot of the cross is also exceptional. The composition is thought to have been copied from a painting by Jan van Eyck, now lost. The painter of this miniature derives his name from the illuminations in the Old Testament commentary of Nicholas of Lyra, which Otto v...