Fragment of a Floor Mosaic: Adam and Eve
late 400s-early 500s
Maker Unknown
Medieval Art
Fragment of a Floor Mosaic: Adam and Eve, late 400s-early 500s. Early Byzantium, Northern Syria, Byzantine period, late 5th-early 6th century. Marble and stone tesserae; overall: 142.9 x 107.3 x 5.7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.); mounted: 142.9 x 107.3 x 7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1969.115 In the Syrian village where this mosaic was created, few people could read and even fewer had access to books. The images within the church educated the community, leading 5th-century Pope Gregory the Great to describe religious images as "books for the illiterate."
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Mosaic
- Formatted Medium
- marble and stone tesserae
- Dimensions
- Overall: 142.9 x 107.3 x 5.7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.); Mounted: 142.9 x 107.3 x 7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: ΚΕΘΑΓΟΝΕΓΥΜΝΟΘΗ (Κ’ΕΘΑΓΟΝ ΕΓΥΜΝΟΘΗ[ΣΑΝ] = κ[αι] ἔφαγον ἐγυμνώθη[σαν]) Translation: "And they ate, [and they] were made naked."
- Departments
- Medieval Art
- Accession Number
- 1969.115
- Credit Line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review: 1969, Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Gallery One 2012, CMA 1970:"Year in Review 1969," CMA Bulletin, 1970 (January, 1970), p.47<br>Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007), the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008) and Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (2/13/2009 - 6/7/2009): "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art"
- Rights Statement
- CC0
- Museum Location
- 106A Migration Period & Coptic
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