{
"data": {
"id": 130958,
"accession_number": "1953.640",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mounted Rock Crystal, 500s-600s. Byzantium, Byzantine period, 6th-7th centuries. Gold, quartz, almandine; overall: 10.2 x 1.9 x 1.6 cm (4 x 3/4 x 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1953.640",
"current_location": "105 Byzantine",
"title": "Mounted Rock Crystal",
"creation_date": "500s-600s",
"creation_date_earliest": 500,
"creation_date_latest": 699,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Byzantium, Byzantine period, 6th-7th centuries"
],
"technique": "gold, quartz, almandine",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Byzantine",
"type": "Metalwork",
"measurements": "Overall: 10.2 x 1.9 x 1.6 cm (4 x 3/4 x 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.102,
"height_inch": 4,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.019,
"width_inch": 0,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"depth": 0.016,
"depth_inch": 0,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"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": "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\"",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Mrs. Paul Mallon, New York).",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "When this object was acquired, it was thought to be a container for holy oil or another sacred relic or substance. However, closer examination revealed that the rock crystal prism at the object\u2019s core is completely solid, leaving no room in which to insert such matter. The object\u2019s original function thus remains unclear. It may have served as an amulet, a magical object meant to protect its owner from evil and mishaps.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60740902"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1953.640-mounted-rock-crystal"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Milliken, William M. \"Byzantine Goldsmith Work.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art Vol. 44, no. 8 (October, 1954): 190-192.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 190-192; Reproduced: P. 194",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141983"
},
{
"citation": "Klein, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 62",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.640",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
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"width": "718",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "491456",
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},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1953.640/1953.640_print.jpg",
"width": "1536",
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"filesize": "2455821",
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"full": {
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"date_created": "2009-01-12T20:28:45",
"annotation": ""
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"date_created": "2009-01-12T20:33:50",
"annotation": ""
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],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 130958,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1953-12-15T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 500,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "500s-600s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Phylactery (Relic Container)"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-07-24 11:49:01.882000"
}
}