id: 106709
accession number: 1924.747
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.747
updated: 2023-01-10 19:31:38.868000
Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve, 1000–1100s. Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period, 11th-12th century. 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
title: Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1000–1100s
creation date earliest: 1000
creation date latest: 1200
current location: 105 Byzantine
creditline: Gift of W. G. Mather, F. F. Prentiss, John L. Severance, J. H. Wade
copyright:
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culture: Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period, 11th-12th century
technique: ivory, wood
department: Medieval Art
collection: MED - Byzantine
type: Ivory
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
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measurements: Overall: 14.3 x 46.7 x 20.3 cm (5 5/8 x 18 3/8 x 8 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: Greek inscriptions are included in each plaque.
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition
opening date: 1936-06-26T04:00:00
The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936).
title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition
opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00
The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
title: Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum
opening date: 1991-06-07T04:00:00
Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
title: Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2007-05-10T00:00:00
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).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Early Christian and Byzantine Art. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, (April 24-June 24, 1947).
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PROVENANCE
Monsignor Béthune, Ghent
date:
footnotes:
citations:
(Lucien Demotte, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.)
date: ?-1924
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1924
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
Carved out of imported ivory by skilled craftsmen, boxes such as these were used by Byzantine elites to store luxury goods such as jewelry.
digital description:
wall 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’s 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.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Graeven, Hans. “Adamo ed Eva sui Cofanetti d’Avorio Bizantini.” L’Arte, 2 (1899): 297-315.
page number: Reproduced: p. 302-303
url:
Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'arte italiana. Milano: U. Hoepli, 1901.
page number: p. 602
url:
Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire (Belgium), and Joseph Destrée. Catalogue des ivoires, des objets en nacre en os gravé et en cire peinte. Bruxelles: Bruyland, 1902.
page number: No. 4
url:
Dalton, O. M. Byzantine Art and Archaeology. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1911.
page number: p. 218
url:
Frary, I.T. "Ivory Coffert," The Buckeye (September 1924).
page number: p. 11
url:
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
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
The Graphic London(1926).
page number:
url:
Gibson, Katharine. “In Spite of Curators.” The American Magazine of Art 17, no. 11 (November 1926): 565-568.
page number:
url:
Eastman, Alvan C. "Byzantine Ivories in American Museums," Art in America 15 (June 1927).
page number: pp. 157-68
url:
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
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:
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:
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:
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
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:
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
Lassus, Jean. The Early Christian and Byzantine World. London: Hamlyn, 1967.
page number: pp. 163-64, fig. 98
url:
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
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
Bernabò, 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:
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:
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:
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:
url:
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:
Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007.
page number: p. 78-81, No. 23
url:
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:
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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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.747/1924.747_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.747/1924.747_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1924.747/1924.747_full.tif