https://emuseum.cornell.edu/internal/media/dispatcher/82317/fullAllegory of the Heart of Jesus (The Five Special Qualities of Our Lord and Their Opposites)1491[com.gallerysystems.emuseum.core.entities.RecordXPerson@18c44]com.gallerysystems.emuseum.core.entities.RecordXPerson@18c44Hand-colored woodcutNo. 82 from "Der Schatzbehalter" _________ Michael Wolgemut German, born between 1434–37, died 1519 Allegory of the Heart of Jesus (The Five Special Qualities of our Lord and Their Opposites), 1491 Hand-colored woodcut Acquired through the Museum Membership Fund 62.2390 Ruth Mullett, Ph.D candidate, medieval studies Allegory of the Heart of Jesus (The Five Special Qualities of Our Lord and Their Opposites) is the eighty-second of ninety-six woodcut illustrations included in Der Schatzbehalter ('The Treasure-Chest'), a meditative work illustrating the life of Christ in text and image. The final codex combined woodcuts by Michael Wolgemut with a German text by Stephan Fridolin, and was printed by Anton Koberger. In this woodcut, the sacred heart contains within it five female figures who embody qualities of Christ himself; they are described in the text as innocent, respectful, steadfast, chaste, and immaculate. These are also all qualities frequently attributed to Mary and you may notice a visual similarity in the figure kneeling in the center. The heart itself is affixed to a cross and enveloped by a halo, enclosing the female figures as they defend the walls from imposters who signify their opposites. While the text claims the male antagonists resemble the tormenters of Christ himself, the tortures they inflict (such as the wheel, hatchet, fire, and sexual temptations) more widely represent the generic tools of early martyrdoms. Despite the appearance of torture devices, however, this image is not a graphic or sensationalist imagining of Christ's suffering as is common in representations of the sacred heart; rather it forces viewers to interpret it rationally in order to gain spiritual benefit. This woodcut bridges a gap between the visual literacies required to view the images on the walls of the gallery and the textual literacies required to view the manuscripts in the cabinet here. Text and image function together to encourage a personal interpretative meditation on the sacred heart. This “curatorial intervention” is part of the final capstone project for students in the Mellon Curatorial Practicum for Graduate Students (ARTH 6010), a course offered through the Johnson Museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant-funded initiative “Connecting Research with Practice” 4/2014 - 6/2014com.gallerysystems.emuseum.core.entities.Classification@5ehttps://emuseum.cornell.edu/objects/33998/rdf