{
"data": {
"id": 144277,
"accession_number": "1969.115",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Fragment of a Floor Mosaic: Adam and Eve, late 400s\u2013early 500s CE. Early Byzantium, Northern Syria, Byzantine period, late 5th-early 6th century. Marble and stone tesserae; overall: 142.9 x 107.3 x 5.7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.); mounted: 142.9 x 107.3 x 7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1969.115",
"current_location": "106A Migration Period & Coptic",
"title": "Fragment of a Floor Mosaic: Adam and Eve",
"creation_date": "late 400s\u2013early 500s CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 475,
"creation_date_latest": 525,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"early Byzantium, Northern Syria, Byzantine period, late 5th-early 6th century"
],
"technique": "marble and stone tesserae",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Byzantine",
"type": "Mosaic",
"measurements": "Overall: 142.9 x 107.3 x 5.7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.); Mounted: 142.9 x 107.3 x 7 cm (56 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 1.429,
"height_inch": 56,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 1.073,
"width_inch": 42,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"depth": 0.057,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.25
},
"mounted": {
"height": 1.429,
"height_inch": 56,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 1.073,
"width_inch": 42,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"depth": 0.07,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "\u039a\u0395\u0398\u0391\u0393\u039f\u039d\u0395\u0393\u03a5\u039c\u039d\u039f\u0398\u0397 (\u039a\u2019\u0395\u0398\u0391\u0393\u039f\u039d \u0395\u0393\u03a5\u039c\u039d\u039f\u0398\u0397[\u03a3\u0391\u039d] = \u03ba[\u03b1\u03b9] \u1f14\u03c6\u03b1\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03b3\u03c5\u03bc\u03bd\u03ce\u03b8\u03b7[\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd])",
"inscription_translation": "\"And they ate, [and they] were made naked.\"",
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": 0
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 301313,
"title": "Year in Review: 1969",
"description": "Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).",
"opening_date": "1970-01-27T05:00:00"
},
{
"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"
},
{
"id": 441481,
"title": "Gallery One 2012",
"description": "Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2012-12-12T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA 1970:\"Year in Review 1969,\" CMA Bulletin, 1970 (January, 1970), p.47",
"opening_date": "1970-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"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": "(J. J. Klejman, New York).",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "In the Syrian village where this mosaic was created, few people could read and even fewer had access to books. The images within the church educated the community, leading 5th-century Pope Gregory the Great to describe religious images as \"books for the illiterate.\"",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This mosaic panel representing the Fall of Adam and Eve once formed part of a much larger mosaic decorating the floor of an early Byzantine church in northern Syria. Here, Adam and Eve are portrayed sharing the forbidden fruit while covering themselves with large leaves. At the top of the panel, a Greek inscription reads, \"And they ate and they were made naked,\" recalling the biblical text (Gen. 3:7) and highlighting the two moments in the biblical narrative of the Fall that are depicted here.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60756275"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1969.115-fragment-of-a-floor"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"The Year in Review for 1969.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 1 (January 1970): 2-50",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 47 no. 120",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Donceel-Vou\u0302te, Pauline. Les Pavements des Eglises Byzantines de Syrie et du Liban: De\u0301cor, Arche\u0301ologie et Liturgie. Louvain-la-Neuve: De\u0301partement d'Arche\u0301ologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, 1988.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 487-489 fig. 456, t. 1",
"url": ""
},
{
"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. 50-51, no. 8",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 56-59; Reproduced: p. 57",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Belis, Alexis. Roman Mosaics in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016. p. 65",
"page_number": "Mention: P. 65, n. 6",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.115",
"images": {
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"date_created": "2005-10-26T18:50:48",
"annotation": ""
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],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 144277,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1969-07-12T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 475,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "late 400s\u2013early 500s 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": "2026-05-29 07:24:18.267000"
}
}