The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 28, 2023

Mold for a Eulogia (Blessing) Bread

600s-900s

Byzantium, Palestine, Byzantine period, 7th-10th century

Wood

Diameter: 8.8 x 1.9 cm (3 7/16 x 3/4 in.)

Thirty-fifth anniversary gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mallon 1951.152

Location

105 Byzantine

Fun Fact

Medieval Christian pilgrims often traveled months or years to religious sites in the Holy Land and returned home with blessed mementos of their journey, such as vials of holy water, relics from saints, and even special loaves of bread. This mold was used to mark bread with an image of the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; the bread was then distributed to pilgrims.

Description

It was a common early Christian practice to stamp images and inscriptions into loaves of bread using special molds. Representing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Mount Golgotha--the hill outside Jerusalem on which Christ was crucified and entombed--this wooden mold was probably used to stamp loaves of bread distributed to pilgrims visiting Jerusalem, in commemoration of their journey.

Provenance
?-1951
(Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mallon, New York, NY, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art).
1951-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Wessel, Klaus, Marcell Restle, Birgitt Borkopp-Restle, Annegret Plontke-Lüning, and Andreas Pülz. Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst. 1966. p. 751
Galavaris, George. Bread and the Liturgy: The Symbolism of Early Christian and Byzantine Bread Stamps. 1970. pp. 153-185, fig. 82
Krautheimer, Richard, and Slobodan Ćurčić. Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Eng: Penguin Books, 1986. p. 65
Duval, Noel "Art Chretien, exposition au Metropolitan Museum de New York" Archeologia 120 (July 1978). p. 40
Schapiro, Meyer. Late Antique, Early Christian and Mediaeval Art. New York: G. Braziller, 1979. pp. 588-589, cat. no. 528
Krautheimer, Richard. Three Christian Capitals: Topography and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. p. 54, fig. 48
Wharton, Annabel Jane. Refiguring the Post Classical City: Dura Europos, Jerash, Jerusalem, and Ravenna. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. pp. 96-7, fig. 31
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. 60, no. 14
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. p. 56, cat. 11
Exhibition history

The Arts of Christian Antiquity, University Art Gallery Notre Dame, Indiana (October 1-31, 1957).

Architectural Style in Miniature, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (August 1-November 30, 1959).

Exhibition of Orthodox Religious Art, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI (April-May, 1960).

Late Antique and Early Christian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (1977-1978).

35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951).

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).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1951.152