{
"data": {
"id": 141645,
"accession_number": "1965.239",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Jonah Under the Gourd Vine, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 32.3 x 46.3 x 18 cm (12 11/16 x 18 1/4 x 7 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.239",
"current_location": "104 Late Antiquity",
"title": "Jonah Under the Gourd Vine",
"creation_date": "280\u201390 CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 280,
"creation_date_latest": 290,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian"
],
"technique": "marble",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Early Christian",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 32.3 x 46.3 x 18 cm (12 11/16 x 18 1/4 x 7 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.323,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.463,
"width_inch": 18,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"depth": 0.18,
"depth_inch": 7,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"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": 304558,
"title": "When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story",
"description": "When Angels Bent Near the Earth to Touch Their Harps of Gold: The Christmas Story. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 1, 1981-January 17, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1981-12-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"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).",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 222537,
"title": "Byzantium, 330-1453",
"description": "Byzantium, 330-1453. Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (October 25, 2008-March 22, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2008-10-25T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich (5/10/2007 - 9/16/2007) and the J. Paul Getty Musuem, Los Angeles (10/30/2007 - 1/20/2008): \"Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art\"",
"opening_date": "2007-05-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Royal Academy of Art, London (10/25/2008 - 3/22/2009): \"Byzantium, 330-1453\", ex. cat. no. 2, p. 53.",
"opening_date": "2008-10-25T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "according to William Wixom, one unconfirmed report tells us that the entire group (1965.237-1965.247) was found in a single, huge pithos or jar. (J. J. Klejman, New York).",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [
{
"id": 141651,
"description": "The Good Shepherd, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 49.5 x 26 x 16.2 cm (19 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 6 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.241",
"relationship": null
},
{
"id": 141650,
"description": "Jonah Praying, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 47.5 x 14.8 x 20.3 cm (18 11/16 x 5 13/16 x 8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.240",
"relationship": null
},
{
"id": 141644,
"description": "Jonah Cast Up, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 41.5 x 36 x 18.5 cm (16 5/16 x 14 3/16 x 7 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.238",
"relationship": null
},
{
"id": 141643,
"description": "Jonah Swallowed, 280\u201390 CE. Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian. Marble; overall: 50.4 x 15.5 x 26.9 cm (19 13/16 x 6 1/8 x 10 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1965.237",
"relationship": null
}
],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The sculpture shows the dramatic moment when the Jonah, having languished in the desert, is saved by the shade of a gourd vine. The sculptor paid great attention to detail such as Jonah's bushy beard echoing the large leaves overhead.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "After disobeying the Lord\u2019s command to proclaim judgment on the city of Nineveh, the Old Testament prophet Jonah was cast into the sea, swallowed by a sea monster, and ultimately cast ashore. When asked a second time, Jonah obeyed the Lord but became displeased when the city was spared. After pleading for Nineveh\u2019s destruction, Jonah left the city and rested in the shadow of a large gourd vine. The Lord, however, made the vine wither, exposing Jonah to the burning sun.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60758736"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1965.239-jonah-under-the-gour"
]
},
"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": "\u201cEarly Christian Sculptures at Cleveland.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 3 (March 1967): 67\u201388.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 80, fig. 29; Mentioned: p. 75-77",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152146"
},
{
"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": "Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Margaret English Frazer, and Kurt Weitzmann. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Museum, 1977.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 407-411",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Weitzmann, Kurt, and Margaret English Frazer. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century ; Based on the Catalogue to the Exhibition \"Age of Spirituality\", Metropolitan Museum New York, 1977. [New York, NY]: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977.",
"page_number": "pp. 406-411",
"url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=efLuB7QPDm8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=cleveland&f=false"
},
{
"citation": "Kitzinger, Ernst. 1978. \"The Cleveland Marbles\". I Monumenti Cristiani Preconstantiniani.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 653-675",
"url": null
},
{
"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": "McColl, Donald Alexander. Early Christian Sculptures at Cleveland in Their Eastern Mediterranean Context. 1991.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"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": "Lehman, Karen M. \"Sacred and Profane Hellenizing Marbles of the Late Third Century Roman Empire: Secular Portraits and Religious Narrative Sculptures in the Cleveland Museum of Art Reviewed in the Cultural Context.\" M.A. thesis, Kent State University, 2004.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. v; Reproduced: p. 108, fig. 25",
"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": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34-37, no. 1",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 260-261",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Fliegel, Stephen. \u201cA Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8-33.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 13",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2014-01"
},
{
"citation": "Meyer, Mati. Omanut yeme ha-benayim be-Eropah uba-biznat\u0323yon. Ra\u02bbananah: ha-Universit\u0323ah ha-petuh\u0323ah, 2017.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 69, #26",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hornik, Heidi J. \"Freestanding Sculpture.\" In The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art.Jensen, Robin Margaret Jensen and Mark D. Ellison, editors. Abingdon Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 75, fig. 5.4",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Rumscheid, Frank, Sabine Schrenk and Kornelia Kressirer. Go\u0308ttliche Ungerechtigkeit?: Strafen und Glaubenspru\u0308fungen als Themen antiker und fru\u0308hchristlicher Kunst. Petersberg: Dr. M. Imhof, 2018.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 302-303; IV.2.3 Abb. 9-11; Kat 5",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bol, Peter, Carola Reinsberg, Renate Bol, D. Kreikenbom, Hans-Ulrich Cain, Heike Richter, and Britta O\u0308zen-Kleine. Plastik der ro\u0308mischen Kaiserzeit vom Regierungsantritt des Antoninus Pius bis zum Ende der Antike. Worms : Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbh, 2019.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 189, 191, 193, 195; Reproduced: Abb. 183 (bd. 2)",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hornik, Heidi J. \"Interpreting Select Early Sculptures Using Art-Historical Methodology.\" In Early Christians and Their Art, edited by Mikeal C. Parsons and Robin M. Jensen, 1-247. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 9; Reproduced: p. 12, fig. 1.10",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Chatterjee, Paroma. The Bucolic Mode in Byzantine Art : Sound, Weather, Imperium. Leeds, U.K.: ARC Humanities Press, 2025.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 36-37, fig. 7",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.239",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_web.jpg",
"width": "1156",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "519424",
"filename": "1965.239_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2627",
"filesize": "4706634",
"filename": "1965.239_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_full.tif",
"width": "5500",
"height": "4250",
"filesize": "70157068",
"filename": "1965.239_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [
{
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt0_web.jpg",
"width": "1156",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "440806"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt0_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2627",
"filesize": "4005352"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt0_full.tif",
"width": "5500",
"height": "4250",
"filesize": "70156180"
},
"date_created": "2008-04-16T12:48:23",
"annotation": ""
},
{
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt1_web.jpg",
"width": "1156",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "522335"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt1_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2627",
"filesize": "4774296"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt1_full.tif",
"width": "5500",
"height": "4250",
"filesize": "70157200"
},
"date_created": "2008-04-16T13:25:11",
"annotation": ""
},
{
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt2_web.jpg",
"width": "1156",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "500155"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt2_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2627",
"filesize": "4436691"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt2_full.tif",
"width": "5500",
"height": "4250",
"filesize": "70156832"
},
"date_created": "2008-04-15T19:37:34",
"annotation": ""
},
{
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt3_web.jpg",
"width": "1148",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "638013"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt3_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2645",
"filesize": "5749707"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.239/1965.239_alt3_full.tif",
"width": "5000",
"height": "3889",
"filesize": "58352760"
},
"date_created": "2005-10-26T18:19:27",
"annotation": ""
}
],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 141645,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1965-09-11T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 280,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "280\u201390 CE",
"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": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-01 11:36:36.132000"
}
}