Altar Frontal with Man of Sorrows and Saints

German; Made in Nuremberg
Wool, linen, and metallic thread (gilt membrane on silk) on linen; 35 1/4 x 65 1/2 in. (89.5 x 166.4 cm)
The Cloisters Collection, 1985 (1991.156)

This altar frontal depicts Christ as the Man of Sorrows displaying the wounds from his Crucifixion. He wears the Crown of Thorns as well as the cloak in which he was dressed by Roman soldiers prior to his execution. A popular devotional image in the late Middle Ages, the Man of Sorrows incites the viewer's empathy with Christ's suffering. Here, Christ is accompanied by St. John the Baptist and the Virgin on the left, and by Saints John the Evangelist and Jerome on the right.
The arms of the Nuremberg citizen Martin Pessler (d. 1463) and his wife, Margarete Toppler (d. 1469), appear at the bottom. This tapestry may well be one of the seven altar frontals Margarete is known to have given to the Lorenzkirche in Nuremberg, a parish church that was richly endowed by the city's merchant class in the Late Middle Ages.

Provenance/Ownership History: Possibly from St. Lorenzkirche, Nuremberg, Germany; Ex coll.: [Ruth and Leopold Blumka, New York]

More of the Man of Sorrows
More of St. John the Baptist
More of St. John the Evangelist
More of St. Jerome