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Additional Views

Apr 15, 2008

Oct 26, 2005

Apr 15, 2008

Jonah Praying

AD 280–90

late Roman. Asia Minor, early Christian, 3rd century

Marble

Overall: 47.5 x 14.8 x 20.3 cm (18 11/16 x 5 13/16 x 8 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1965.240

Location

104 Late Antiquity

Description

The Old Testament prophet Jonah is shown with his hands raised in prayer. It is unclear which moment of the biblical story of Jonah is depicted here. He may be praying in the belly of the sea monster. He might likewise be pleading with the Lord for the city of Nineveh’s destruction or lamenting the withering of the gourd beneath which he sought shelter after fleeing Nineveh.

Provenance

according to William Wixom, an 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

Wixom, William. "Early Christian Sculptures at Cleveland." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 3 (1967): 67-88. Reproduced: P. 81 www.jstor.org

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. 407-411

Kitzinger, Ernst. 1978. "The Cleveland Marbles". I Monumenti Cristiani Preconstantiniani. 653-675.

McColl, Donald Alexander. Early Christian Sculptures at Cleveland in Their Eastern Mediterranean Context. Dissertation: Oberlin College 1991.

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 14 archive.org

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. Mentioned: p. v; Reproduced: p. 109, fig. 26

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. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34-37, no. 1

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 261

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 Reproduced: p. 74, fig. 5.2

Rumscheid, Frank, Sabine Schrenk and Kornelia Kressirer. Göttliche Ungerechtigkeit?: Strafen und Glaubensprüfungen als Themen antiker und frühchristlicher Kunst. Petersberg: Dr. M. Imhof, 2018. Reproduced: p. 304; IV.2.3 Abb. 12-14

Bol, Peter, Carola Reinsberg, Renate Bol, D. Kreikenbom, Hans-Ulrich Cain, Heike Richter, and Britta Özen-Kleine. Plastik der römischen Kaiserzeit vom Regierungsantritt des Antoninus Pius bis zum Ende der Antike. Worms : Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbh, 2019. Mentioned: p. 189, 191, 193, 195; Reproduced: Abb. 182a-b (bd.2)

Exhibition history

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"

Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).

Early Christian and Byzantine Art in Honor of Professor Ernst Kitzinger. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (March 17-April 22, 1979).

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=Jonah Praying|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.240|year=AD 280–90|access-date=31 May 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Jonah Praying

Jonah Praying

late Roman. Asia Minor, early Christian, 3rd century

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