{
"data": {
"id": 140480,
"accession_number": "1964.39",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Spoon with Saint Paul as an Athlete, 350\u2013400. Late Roman Empire, perhaps Syria, early Byzantine, 4th century. Silver, silver gilt, and niello; overall: 4.6 x 5.6 cm (1 13/16 x 2 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1964.39",
"current_location": "104 Late Antiquity",
"title": "Spoon with Saint Paul as an Athlete",
"creation_date": "350\u2013400",
"creation_date_earliest": 350,
"creation_date_latest": 400,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"late Roman Empire, perhaps Syria, early Byzantine, 4th century"
],
"technique": "silver, silver gilt, and niello",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Byzantine",
"type": "Metalwork",
"measurements": "Overall: 4.6 x 5.6 cm (1 13/16 x 2 3/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.046,
"height_inch": 1,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.8125,
"width": 0.056,
"width_inch": 2,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"length": 0.122,
"length_inch": 4,
"length_inch_fraction": 0.8125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "the interior of the bowl contains an inscription filled with niello giving the Latin name of \"PAVLVS.\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300917,
"title": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions",
"description": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1966-09-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 518143,
"title": "Art of the Late Antique",
"description": "Art of the Late Antique. The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA (organizer) (December 17, 1968-February 16, 1969).",
"opening_date": "1968-12-17T05:00:00"
},
{
"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": "Waltham Mass.; Ross Art Museum, Brandeis University: \"Art of the Late Antique,\" December 17, 1968--February 17, 1969.",
"opening_date": "1968-12-17T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art: \"The Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, 3rd to 7th century\" November 19, 1977--February 12, 1978, no. 316.",
"opening_date": "1977-11-19T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cleveland, CMA: \"From Hand to Mouth: A History of Flatware\" October 18, 1994-March 26, 1995.",
"opening_date": "1994-10-18T00:00:00"
},
{
"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": "Mrs. Paul Mallon, New York.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1964-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Silver spoons with swan neck handles (ligulae) were popular in the Late Roman Empire. This late antique spoon is unique because it is decorated with the nude figure of a victorious athlete identified in an inscription as PAVLVS (Paul). It is tempting to interpret the juxtaposition of the name with a classical representation of an athlete as a subtle allusion to a passage in Saint Paul\u2019s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9:24-27), in which the apostle characterizes himself as an \"athlete of Christ.\" While this interpretation may imply that the spoon\u2019s owner was a Christian, it does not imply a religious function for the object, which was likely used for display or fine dining.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60758411"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1964.39-spoon-with-saint-pau"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"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. 36",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n60"
},
{
"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. 36",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n58"
},
{
"citation": "Wixom, William D. \u201cA Mystery Spoon from the Fourth Century.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 5 (May 1970): 141\u2013148.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 141-143, figs. 1-3",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152330"
},
{
"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. 34",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n54"
},
{
"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. 44-45, no. 5",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hervas, Rocio Gordillo, Eduardo Ferrer Albelda, Alvaro Pereira Delgado. \"Compitiendo Para los Dioses: Los Rituales Agonisticos en el Mundo Antiguo,\" Spal Monografias Arqueologia XLIII Sevilla, 2022.",
"page_number": "cover",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1964.39",
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"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 140480,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1964-02-22T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 350,
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"date_text": "350\u2013400",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Spoon with St. Paul"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:17:08.942000"
}
}