{
"data": {
"id": 149383,
"accession_number": "1978.40",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Plaque: The Journey to Bethlehem, c. 1100\u20131120. South Italy, Amalfi, Romanesque period, 12th century. Ivory; overall: 16.3 x 11 x 1 cm (6 7/16 x 4 5/16 x 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1978.40",
"current_location": "106C Medieval Treasury",
"title": "Plaque: The Journey to Bethlehem",
"creation_date": "c. 1100\u20131120",
"creation_date_earliest": 1100,
"creation_date_latest": 1120,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"South Italy, Amalfi, Romanesque period, 12th century"
],
"technique": "ivory",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Romanesque",
"type": "Ivory",
"measurements": "Overall: 16.3 x 11 x 1 cm (6 7/16 x 4 5/16 x 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.163,
"height_inch": 6,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.4375,
"width": 0.11,
"width_inch": 4,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"depth": 0.01,
"depth_inch": 0,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304286,
"title": "Year in Review: 1978",
"description": "Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-02-13T05:00:00"
},
{
"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": 211519,
"title": "The Glory of Byzantium",
"description": "The Glory of Byzantium. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3-July 6, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1997-03-03T00:00:00"
},
{
"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": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "The Robert von Hirsch Collection, Sotheby's, London, June 22, 1978, lot 277.",
"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 ivory plaque depicts Mary, Joseph, and one of his sons from a previous wife on their way to Bethlehem. The scene is set within an architectural frame that combines Byzantine decorative elements (such as the acanthus leaf column capitals) with Islamic architectural motifs (most notably, the distinctively rounded arches). The blending of Byzantine, Islamic, and Western iconographic elements and decorative motifs is typical for the art produced in the city of Amalfi, a prosperous merchant town near Naples in South Italy.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60756951"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1978.40-plaque-the-journey-t"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cThe Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Six Works from Von Hirsch Collection,\u201d August 1, 1978, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr2569"
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1978.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 1 (January 1979): 3\u201348.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 7; Mentioned: p. 42, no. 20",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159613"
},
{
"citation": "Wixom, William D. \u201cEleven Additions to the Medieval Collection.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 3 (March 1979): 86\u2013151.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 86-87, fig. 1 and Cover",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159622"
},
{
"citation": "Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p.492",
"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. 130-131, no. 42",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Pace, Valentino. Una Bibbia in avorio: arte mediterranea nella Salerno dell'XI secolo. Castel Bolognese: Itaca,2016.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 27",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1978.40",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
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"date_created": "2007-02-27T15:51:21",
"annotation": ""
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],
"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 149383,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1978-08-10T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1100,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1100\u20131120",
"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 07:41:21.752000"
}
}