The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 22, 2024

Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve

Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve

1000–1100s
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.
  • Monsignor Béthune, Ghent
    ?-1924
    (Lucien Demotte, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.)
    1924
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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.
  • 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).
    Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
    Early Christian and Byzantine Art. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, (April 24-June 24, 1947).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=Ivory Box with Scenes of Adam and Eve|url=false|author=|year=1000–1100s|access-date=22 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.747