{
"data": {
"id": 133163,
"accession_number": "1955.555",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Celtic Head, 100\u2013300 CE. Northern England (Romano-British), Migration period, 2nd-3rd centuries. Sandstone with traces of original red paint; overall: 30 x 31 x 24 cm (11 13/16 x 12 3/16 x 9 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jacob Hirsch, 1955.555",
"current_location": "106A Migration Period & Coptic",
"title": "Celtic Head",
"creation_date": "100\u2013300 CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 100,
"creation_date_latest": 300,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Northern England (Romano-British), Migration period, 2nd-3rd centuries"
],
"technique": "sandstone with traces of original red paint",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Migration Period",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 30 x 31 x 24 cm (11 13/16 x 12 3/16 x 9 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.3,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.8125,
"width": 0.31,
"width_inch": 12,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"depth": 0.24,
"depth_inch": 9,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302007,
"title": "Paths of Abstract Art",
"description": "Paths of Abstract Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 5-November 13, 1960).",
"opening_date": "1960-10-05T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 300779,
"title": "Juxtapositions",
"description": "Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-09-11T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 206178,
"title": "Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture",
"description": "Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 26, 2006-February 19, 2007).",
"opening_date": "2006-09-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"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": "Metropolitan Museum of Art (9/26/2006 - 2/19/2007): \"Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture\"",
"opening_date": "2006-09-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"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": "Walter Carl, Frankfurt-am-Main, c. 1904-1919; Rothschild (?); (Dr. Jacob Hirsch, New York, c. 1945-1955).",
"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": "This stone head has never been attached to a torso. It is known from ancient literary sources that the Celts, who originally occupied most of northern Europe from Hungary to the British Isles, practiced ritualistic veneration of the human head. For the Celts, the human head represented the seat of mankind\u2019s magical energy. Stone heads similar to this one have survived in large numbers, especially in the upland regions of northern England (the Pennines, the Peak District, and Cumbria) where this one was undoubtedly made by British Celts during the Roman occupation. Such stone heads were probably placed in religious shrines or grottos generally associated with springs, well heads, or natural landmarks for ritual veneration.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60741262"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1955.555-celtic-head"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"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. 89",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n30"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward B. Henning. Paths of Abstract Art. Cleveland, OH: H.N. Abrams, 1960.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: fig 5, p. 8; mentioned: fig. 5, pp. 5,19",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Fliegel, Stephen. \"A Little-Known Celtic Stone Head.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 3 (1990): 82-103.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cover, p. 83-85; Mentioned: p. 82-103",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160110"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 14",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n29"
},
{
"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": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 94-95, no. 27",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 18 - 19",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Williamson, Paul. The Wyvern Collection: Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture and Metalwork. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018.",
"page_number": "CMA Mentioned: p. 15",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1955.555",
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"creditline": "Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jacob Hirsch",
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"sketchfab_id": null,
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"athena_id": 133163,
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1955-11-21T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 100,
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:50:57.926000"
}
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