{
"data": {
"id": 106709,
"accession_number": "1924.747",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve, 1000\u20131100s. Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period. Ivory, wood; overall: 14.3 x 46.7 x 20.3 cm (5 5/8 x 18 3/8 x 8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of W. G. Mather, F. F. Prentiss, John L. Severance, J. H. Wade, 1924.747",
"current_location": "105 Byzantine",
"title": "Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve",
"creation_date": "1000\u20131100s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1000,
"creation_date_latest": 1200,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period"
],
"technique": "ivory, wood",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Byzantine",
"type": "Ivory",
"measurements": "Overall: 14.3 x 46.7 x 20.3 cm (5 5/8 x 18 3/8 x 8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.143,
"height_inch": 5,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.467,
"width_inch": 18,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"depth": 0.203,
"depth_inch": 8,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Greek inscriptions are included in each plaque.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312517,
"title": "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition",
"description": "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).",
"opening_date": "1936-06-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311444,
"title": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum",
"description": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).",
"opening_date": "1991-06-07T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 180667,
"title": "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Early Christian and Byzantine Art. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, (April 24-June 24, 1947).",
"opening_date": "1947-04-24T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Monsignor B\u00e9thune, Ghent",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Lucien Demotte, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1924",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1924",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Carved out of imported ivory by skilled craftsmen, boxes such as these were used by Byzantine elites to store luxury goods such as jewelry.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Scenes from the Old Testament stories of Adam and Eve and their children, Cain and Abel, decorate this box, which may have been made to contain jewelry or small valuables. On its lid two plaques depict the creation of Adam and the creation of Eve from Adam\u2019s rib. Two further plaques depict Cain slaying Abel: Cain throws a stone in the direction of Abel, who is hit by stones in the hip, chest, and head.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60757747"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1924.747-ivory-box-with-scene"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Graeven, Hans. \u201cAdamo ed Eva sui Cofanetti d\u2019Avorio Bizantini.\u201d L\u2019Arte, 2 (1899): 297-315.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 302-303",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'arte italiana. Milano: U. Hoepli, 1901.",
"page_number": "p. 602",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Muse\u0301es royaux d'art et d'histoire (Belgium), and Joseph Destre\u0301e. Catalogue des ivoires, des objets en nacre en os grave\u0301 et en cire peinte. Bruxelles: Bruyland, 1902.",
"page_number": "No. 4",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Dalton, O. M. Byzantine Art and Archaeology. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1911.",
"page_number": "p. 218",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Frary, I.T. \"Ivory Coffert,\" The Buckeye (September 1924).",
"page_number": "p. 11",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Milliken, William M. \"A Byzantine Ivory Casket.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 12, no. 1 (1925)",
"page_number": "pp. 5-13",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25136818"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 12",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook_80839/page/n14"
},
{
"citation": "The Graphic London(1926).",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gibson, Katharine. \u201cIn Spite of Curators.\u201d The American Magazine of Art 17, no. 11 (November 1926): 565-568.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Eastman, Alvan C. \"Byzantine Ivories in American Museums,\" Art in America 15 (June 1927).",
"page_number": "pp. 157-68",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 12",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1928/page/n16"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936.",
"page_number": "p. 18",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Milliken, William. \"Mr. Severance's Gifts to the Museum.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 23, no. 2 (February 1936): 17-27",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 26; Reproduced: p. 27",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137748"
},
{
"citation": "Milliken, William. \"Silver Jubilee Exhibition.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no.6 (June 1941): 88-108",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 90; Reproduced: p. 96",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25140932"
},
{
"citation": "Shoolman, Regina, and Charles E. Slatkin. The Enjoyment of Art in America, A Survey of the Permanent Collections of Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics & Decorative Arts in American and Canadian Museums: Being an Introduction to the Masterpieces of Art from Prehistoric to Modern Times. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1942.",
"page_number": "p. 792",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, Md.), and Dorothy Eugenia Miner. Early Christian and Byzantine Art, An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, April 25-June 22 [1947]. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1947.",
"page_number": "no. 118, pl. XXIV",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 86",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n29"
},
{
"citation": "Panofsky, Erwin. Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance. New York: Harper & Row, 1962.",
"page_number": "p. 45, fig. 25",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 41",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n65"
},
{
"citation": "Lassus, Jean. The Early Christian and Byzantine World. London: Hamlyn, 1967.",
"page_number": "pp. 163-64, fig. 98",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 41",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n63"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 43",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n63"
},
{
"citation": "Bernabo\u0300, Massimo. Considerazioni sul manoscritto laurenziano plut. 5.38 e sulle miniature della Genesi degli Ottateuchi bizantini. 111, 8, 1 (1978).",
"page_number": "pp. 135-157, pl. IX, fig. 1",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Frye, Roland Mushat. Milton's Imagery and the Visual Arts: Iconographic Tradition in the Epic Poems. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978.",
"page_number": "p. 140, pl. 220",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Goldschmidt, Adolph, and Kurt Weitzmann. Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des X-XIII Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Brnuo Cassirer, 1930.",
"page_number": "No. 67a-e, pls. XLVII, XLVIII",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, and Liz James. Desire and Denial in Byzantium: Papers from the 31st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, March 1997. Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 1999.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.",
"page_number": "Cat. No. 25, p. 88-89",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. Mu\u0308nchen: Hirmer, 2007.",
"page_number": "p. 78-81, No. 23",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "WIlson, Justin. \"The Origin of the Crafts According to Byzantine Rosette Caskets.\" West 86th, 27 No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2020): 197-215.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 197 - 201, figs. 1 and 4.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Couzin, Robert. Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art. Boston : Brill, 2021, 26.",
"page_number": "Mentioned; p. 26, n. 30.",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Gift of W. G. Mather, F. F. Prentiss, John L. Severance, J. H. Wade",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1924-07-14T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1000,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1000\u20131100s",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Casket with Adam and Eve"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 05:44:28.587000"
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}