Images

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=F68CA19CF2CC6A1F348D5BE5F1C8D1E9CA9331D344FAF8D31A460E2656FFCA87&s=24247294&se=943622552&v=6&f=1924.747_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=5C7BF735065D6F07F62F353ACF57CF591B90BB700EDCAE10EC0E1E7D74F86438&s=24247294&se=943622552&v=1&f=%5C1924.747det01_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=5C7BF735065D6F0721EAF375A57548B5AEF5C3EF6FA49A51F3E75497C9D596BF&s=24247294&se=943622552&v=1&f=%5C1924.747det02_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=21B1EA77CBA6CA9D5D89712625737B11B8D18E75BE5E6D96D28B3FE7CEF1E03C&s=24247294&se=943622552&v=1&f=%5C1924.747det03_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=21B1EA77CBA6CA9DD1668734F99743FDF144848C0CAFE24BBD249CFBDD8721A6&s=24247294&se=943622552&v=1&f=%5C1924.747det04_o2.jpg

https://piction.clevelandart.org/cma/ump.di?e=27F274D06257277246E88BBD956FE1CE44A8F64207F9EC980199F7D41BF25E68&s=24247294&se=943622552&v=1&f=%5C1924.747det05_o2.jpg

Additional Views

Nov 28, 2005

Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve

1000–1100s

Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period, 11th-12th century

Ivory, wood

Overall: 14.3 x 46.7 x 20.3 cm (5 5/8 x 18 3/8 x 8 in.)

Gift of W. G. Mather, F. F. Prentiss, John L. Severance, J. H. Wade 1924.747

Location

105 Byzantine

Did you know?

Carved out of imported ivory by skilled craftsmen, boxes such as these were used by Byzantine elites to store luxury goods such as jewelry.

Description

Scenes from the Old Testament stories of Adam and Eve and their children, Cain and Abel, decorate this box, which may have been made to contain jewelry or small valuables. On its lid two plaques depict the creation of Adam and the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib. Two further plaques depict Cain slaying Abel: Cain throws a stone in the direction of Abel, who is hit by stones in the hip, chest, and head.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Greek inscriptions are included in each plaque.

Provenance

Monsignor Béthune, Ghent

?-1924

(Lucien Demotte, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.)

1924

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Graeven, Hans. “Adamo ed Eva sui Cofanetti d’Avorio Bizantini.” L’Arte, 2 (1899): 297-315. Reproduced: p. 302-303

Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'arte italiana. Milano: U. Hoepli, 1901. p. 602

Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire (Belgium), and Joseph Destrée. Catalogue des ivoires, des objets en nacre en os gravé et en cire peinte. Bruxelles: Bruyland, 1902. No. 4

Dalton, O. M. Byzantine Art and Archaeology. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1911. p. 218

Frary, I.T. "Ivory Coffert," The Buckeye (September 1924). p. 11

Milliken, William M. "A Byzantine Ivory Casket." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 12, no. 1 (1925) pp. 5-13 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 12 archive.org

The Graphic London(1926).

Gibson, Katharine. “In Spite of Curators.” The American Magazine of Art 17, no. 11 (November 1926): 565-568.

Eastman, Alvan C. "Byzantine Ivories in American Museums," Art in America 15 (June 1927). pp. 157-68

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 12 archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. p. 18

Shoolman, Regina, and Charles E. Slatkin. The Enjoyment of Art in America, A Survey of the Permanent Collections of Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics & Decorative Arts in American and Canadian Museums: Being an Introduction to the Masterpieces of Art from Prehistoric to Modern Times. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1942. p. 792

Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, Md.), and Dorothy Eugenia Miner. Early Christian and Byzantine Art, An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, April 25-June 22 [1947]. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1947. no. 118, pl. XXIV

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 86 archive.org

Panofsky, Erwin. Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance. New York: Harper & Row, 1962. p. 45, fig. 25

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 41 archive.org

Lassus, Jean. The Early Christian and Byzantine World. London: Hamlyn, 1967. pp. 163-64, fig. 98

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 41 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 43 archive.org

Bernabò, Massimo. Considerazioni sul manoscritto laurenziano plut. 5.38 e sulle miniature della Genesi degli Ottateuchi bizantini. 111, 8, 1 (1978). pp. 135-157, pl. IX, fig. 1

Frye, Roland Mushat. Milton's Imagery and the Visual Arts: Iconographic Tradition in the Epic Poems. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978. p. 140, pl. 220

Goldschmidt, Adolph, and Kurt Weitzmann. Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des X-XIII Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Brnuo Cassirer, 1930. No. 67a-e, pls. XLVII, XLVIII

Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, and Liz James. Desire and Denial in Byzantium: Papers from the 31st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, March 1997. Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 1999.

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. Cat. No. 25, p. 88-89

Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 78-81, No. 23

WIlson, Justin. "The Origin of the Crafts According to Byzantine Rosette Caskets." West 86th, 27 No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2020): 197-215. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 197 - 201, figs. 1 and 4.

Couzin, Robert. Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art. Boston : Brill, 2021, 26. Mentioned; p. 26, n. 30.

Exhibition history

Early Christian and Byzantine Art. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, (April 24-June 24, 1947).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

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).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1924.747|year=1000–1100s|access-date=27 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.

You are here:

Images

Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve

Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve

Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period, 11th-12th century

Location

Download and Share

Did you know?

Description

Inscription

Contact us