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Source Description
Woven from more than 20 colors of woolen thread, this rare tapestry was more expensive than a painting when it was made. The historical price reflected contemporary viewers’ appreciation for the skilled color blending by the weavers. Hung on a wall, this tapestry allowed viewers to venerate (honor) the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child in the Christian Orthodox church. Angels and apostles surround them, their names written in Greek. To be spiritually effective, an icon (devotional image) should follow its subject’s established visual tradition as closely as possible.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
143165
label
Icon of the Virgin and Child
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
143165
contentType
object
title
Icon of the Virgin and Child
description
Woven from more than 20 colors of woolen thread, this rare tapestry was more expensive than a painting when it was made. The historical price reflected contemporary viewers’ appreciation for the skilled color blending by the weavers. Hung on a wall, this tapestry allowed viewers to venerate (honor) the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child in the Christian Orthodox church. Angels and apostles surround them, their names written in Greek. To be spiritually effective, an icon (devotional image) should follow its subject’s established visual tradition as closely as possible.
date
500s CE
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60745622
genreSpecific
Textile
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 178.7 x 110.5 cm (70 3/8 x 43 1/2 in.); Mounted: 197.4 x 128.2 x 6.4 cm (77 11/16 x 50 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)
cul
Egypt, Byzantine period
accession
1967.144
Source extras
tec
wool and dye
tombstone
Icon of the Virgin and Child, 500s CE. Egypt, Byzantine period. Wool and dye; overall: 178.7 x 110.5 cm (70 3/8 x 43 1/2 in.); mounted: 197.4 x 128.2 x 6.4 cm (77 11/16 x 50 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1967.144
collection
T - Coptic
inscriptions
inscription
on the lintel of the architectural setting, the Greek inscription translates as: The Holy Michael, The Holy Mary, The Holy Gabriel. The wide foliate border is decorated with fruits and flowers and, in the lower part, with medallions containing the busts of apostles whose names are inscribed nearby in Greek and are translated as: Andrew, Matthew, Paul the Apostle, Luke, James, Phillip, Mark, Thomas, John, Matthias, Peter, and Bartholomew.
didYouKnow
Created in Egypt's hot and dry desert climate, this tapestry features a border of lush greenery and fruits, while flowers peek out from around the throne of the Virgin. Imagine encountering this artistic oasis in a Coptic church during the dry heat of the day.
citations
citation
Schiller, Gertrud.<em> Ikonographie der Christlichen Kunst.</em> [Gütersloh]: Gütersloher Verlagshaus G. Mohn, 1966.
page_number
Mentioned: Vol. 4, Pt. 2, P. 21, abb. 413: Reproduced: Vol. 4, Pt. 2, P. 267, abb. 413
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 37
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy G. "An Icon of the Virgin." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 56, no. 1 (1969)
page_number
p. 2, cover
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy G. “An Icon of the Virgin: A Sixth-Century Tapestry Panel from Egypt.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 56, no. 3 (March 1969): 91–120.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 90–120; Reproduced: covers
citation
Frazer, Margaret English. "The Djumati Enamels: A Twelfth-Century Litany of Saints." <em>The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin</em> 28, no. 6 (1970).
page_number
Reproduced: fig. 4
citation
Rademacher, Franz. <em>Die Regina Angelorum in der Kunst des frühen Mittelalters. </em>Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1972.
page_number
p. 29, nr. 15
citation
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Anna G. Bennett. <em>Acts of the Tapestry Symposium, November, 1976</em>. [San Francisco]: The Museums, 1979.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 7, fig. 7
citation
Shepherd, Dorothy G. “A Late Classical Tapestry.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 63, no. 10 (December 1976): 307–313.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 311, fig. 10
citation
Weitzmann, Kurt, and Margaret English Frazer. <em>Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century</em> ; Based on the Catalogue to the Exhibition "Age of Spirituality", Metropolitan Museum New York, 1977. [New York, NY]: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977.
page_number
p. 532-33, no. 477
citation
Sampaolesi, Piero, "Zibaldone delle Arti, Mostri: 'Age of Spirituality,' New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Antichita Viva, XVI, 5 (1977).
page_number
p. 64
citation
Weitzmann, Kurt. "Late Antique and Early Christian Art." <em>Archaeology</em> 30, no. 6 (1977)
page_number
p. 417
citation
Weitzmann, Kurt. "The Late Roman World." <em>The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin</em> 35, no. 2 (1977) pp. 2–96.
page_number
Mentioned: no, 69, p. 81, Reproduced: p. 80
citation
Frazer, Margaret English and Kurt Weitzmann. <em>Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century.</em> New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977.
page_number
p. 80, no. 69
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 36
citation
Weitzmann, Kurt. <em>The Icon: Holy Images--Sixth to Fourteenth Century</em>. New York: G. Braziller, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 4
citation
Ball, Victoria Kloss. <em>Architecture and Interior Design</em>. New York: Wiley, 1980.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 9
citation
Schiller, Gertrud, and Rupert Schreiner.<em> Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst</em>. Gütersloh: G. Mohn, 1980.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 21, fig. 413
citation
Kajitani, Nobuko, "Koputo gire" (English title: "Coptic fabrics"), <em>Semshoku</em> no bi, no. 13 (Kyoto, 1981).
page_number
Reproduced: p. 34, pl. 44
citation
Galavaris, George. <em>The Icon in the Life of the Church: Doctrine, Liturgy, Devotion.</em> Leiden: Brill, 1981.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 13, 26; Reproduced: pl. VIIb
citation
McGinn, Bernard, John Meyendorff, and Jean Leclercq.<em> Christian Spirituality: Origins to the Twelfth Century</em>. New York: Crossroad, 2000.
page_number
Reproduced: fig. 31, p. 437
citation
Thomas, Michel, Christine Mainguy, and Sophie Pommier. <em>Textile Art</em>. Geneva, Switzerland: Skira, 1985.
page_number
p. 35
citation
Friedman, Florence D. <em>Beyond the Pharaohs: Egypt and the Copts in the 2nd to 7th Centuries A.D</em>. Providence, R.I.: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1989.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 69, fig. 2
citation
Woolley, Linda. "Pagan Classical Christian: Egyptian Hangings of the 4th to 7th Centuries," <em>Hali</em>, No. 48 (Dec. 1989), pp. 27–37.
citation
Pelikan, Jaroslav. <em>Imago Dei</em>. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 18, fig. 8, cover
citation
Rutschowscaya, Marie-Hélène. <em>Coptic Fabrics</em>. Paris, France: Adam Biro, 1990.
page_number
p. 135
citation
Reader's Digest, "The Bible Through the Ages," <em>Reader's Digest </em>(Pleasantville, NY, 199?).
page_number
p. 237
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Masterpieces from East and West. </em>New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992.
page_number
p. 23
citation
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Adolph S. Cavallo. <em>Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. </em>New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 62, fig. 77
citation
Lucidi, Maria Teresa. <em>La seta e la sua via</em>. Roma: Edizioni De Luca, 1994.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 125, fig. 1
citation
Joubert, Fabienne, Amaury Lefébure, and Pascal-François Bertrand. <em>Histoire de la tapisserie: en Europe, du Moyen Age à nos jours. </em>Paris: Flammarion, 1995.
page_number
p. 28
citation
Pelikan, Jaroslav. <em>Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture.</em> New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
page_number
p. 98
citation
Winner, Matthias, Victoria von Flemming, Sebastian Schütze, and Hans Werner Henze. <em>Ars naturam adiuvans: Festschrift für Matthias Winner zum 11. Marz 1996. </em>Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern, 1996.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 79–80, abb. 5
citation
Vasilakē, Maria. <em>Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art</em>. Milano: Skira, 2000.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 224, fig. 170
citation
Orsini, Jacqueline.<em> Mary: Images of the Holy Mother. </em>San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000.
page_number
pp. 80–81, no. 60
citation
Lee, A. D.<em> Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook. </em>London: Routledge, 2000.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 259, fig. 14.12.a
citation
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. <em>Knockouts: A Pocket Guide</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 116
citation
Rosenwein, Barbara H.<em> A Short History of the Middle Ages. </em>Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2002.
page_number
pp. 7, 102
citation
Bolman, Elizabeth S., and Patrick Godeau. <em>Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea.</em> New Haven, CT: American Research Center in Egypt/Yale University Press, 2002.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 33, fig. 3.5
citation
Rosenwein, Barbara H. <em>A Short History of the Middle Ages. </em>Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2004.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 53, pl. 1.10
citation
Mathews, Thomas F. and Norman Muller. Isis and Mary in Early Icons." In <em>Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium.</em> Maria Vasilakē, 1-9. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
page_number
Mention: p. 8, note # 24
citation
Jensen, Robin Margaret.<em> Face to Face: Portraits of the Divine in Early Christianity</em>. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 195, fig. 102
citation
Queen, Sally, and Vicki L. Berger.<em> Clothing and Textile Collections in the United States: A CSA Guide</em>. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2006.
page_number
p. 259
citation
Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550</em>. München: Hirmer, 2007.
page_number
pp. 42–45, no. 6
citation
<em>30,000 Years of Art: The Story of Human Creativity Across Time and Space</em>. London: Phaidon, 2007.
page_number
p. 397
citation
Klein, Holger A. <em>Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.
page_number
p. 70, cat. no. 18
citation
Moor, A. de, and Cäcilia Fluck. <em>Clothing the House: Furnishing Textiles of the 1st Millennium AD from Egypt and Neighbouring Countries : Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Research Group "Textiles from the Nile Valley" Antwerp, 6-7 October 2007.</em> Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo Publishers, 2009.
page_number
pp. 148–149, fig. 2
citation
Pelikan, Jaroslav. <em>Imago Dei: The Byzantine Apologia for Icons</em>. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
page_number
Mentioned: P. viii-ix, 4-5; Reproduced: Cover, verso title page
citation
Noll, Mark A. <em>Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity.</em> Grand Rapids: Baker Pub. Group, 2012.
page_number
p. 68
citation
Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. <em>Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 54–55
citation
Elsner, Jaś. "Iconoclasm as Discourse: From Antiquity to Byzantium." <em>The Art Bulletin</em> 94, no. 3 (September 2012), pp. 368-394.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 384, no. 20
citation
<em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 362–363
citation
Thomas, Thelma K. "Material Meaning in Late Antiquity." In <em>Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity. </em>Thelma K. Thomas, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 29, fig. 1-1.9
citation
Asutay-Effenberger, Neslihan, and Arne Effenberger. <em>Byzanz: Weltreich der Kunst.</em> München: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2017.
page_number
Mentioned: p.122
citation
Bergmeier, Armin F. <em>Visionserwartung: Visualisierung und Präsenzerfahrung des Göttlichen in der Spätantike.</em> Wiesbaden; Reichert Verlag 2017.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 147, notr #658; Reproduced: Tafel 23: p. 147
citation
Ramisch, Hans. <em>Altar-Bilder im ersten christlichen Jahrtausend: der christliche Altar und seine heilsgeschichtlichen Bildsysteme</em>. München: Scaneg, 2018.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 144, 152; Reproduced: p. 151, abb. 51, cat. 19
citation
Ball, Jennifer. "Textiles: The Emergence of a Christian Identity in Cloth." In I <em>The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art.</em>Jensen, Robin Margaret Jensen and Mark D. Ellison, editors. Abingdon Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 232, fig. 14.8
citation
Mazzei, Barbara. "Clipeus, clipei. Istanze simboliche e intenti decorativi nelle arti della Tarda Antichita e dell'Alto Medioevo." In <em>Arti Minori e Arti Maggiori: Relazioni e Iterazioni tra Tarda Antichità e alto Medioevo</em>. Fabrizio Bisconti, Matteo Braconi, and Mariarita Sgarlata. Todi (PG): Tau editrice, 2019.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 213, fig. 9
citation
Williams, Elizabeth Dospěl, Sumru Belger Krody, and Gudrun Bühl. <em>Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt. </em>Washington: The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, 2019.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 30, pp. 78–79
citation
Dospěl, Elizabeth. 2019. “Colour, Texture, Pattern” HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles. [London]: [Oguz Press], Number:202.
page_number
pp. 56–65; Reproduced: p. 63
citation
de Moor, A., Cäcilia Fluck, and Petra Linscheid, eds. <em>Egypt As a Textile Hub: Textile Interrelationships in the 1st Millennium AD : Proceedings of the 10th Conference of the Research Group 'Textiles from the Nile Valley'</em>. Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo, 2019.
page_number
Reproduced and Mentioned: pp. 46–48, fig. 6
citation
Sörries, Reiner. <em>Der frühchristliche Kirchenraum: Ikonographie - Ausstattung - Liturgie</em>. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2020.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 128; reproduced: Tafel 54, Abb. 80c
citation
Jensen, Robin Margaret. F<em>rom Idols to Icons: The Rise of the Devotional Image in Early Christianity</em>. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2022.
page_number
Reproduced: cover illustration
citation
Blessing, Patricia, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, and Eiren L. Shea. <em>Medieval Textiles Across Eurasia, C. 300-1400.</em> Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 64; Reproduced: p. 35, fig. 57
citation
Achi, Andrea Myers, et al. <em>Africa and Byzantium</em>. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 44–45, no. 5
citation
Balestrieri, James D. "Ancient Splendor." <em>Art & Antiques</em> 47, no. 1 (January/February 2024): 52–57.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 54
citation
Teteriatnikov, Natalia. "The Virgin's Bejeweled Throne: A Manifestation of Divine and Earthly Authority Between Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium." <em>Arte Medievale</em> 4, a. 14 (2024): 129-146.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 132, 135, 137; Reproduced: p. 135, fig. 8
citation
Hanson, Robin and Holly Witchey. "Dorothy Shepherd and the Cleveland Museum of Art's Ancient Near Eastern and Islamic Art Collection." <em>Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals</em> 20, n. 3 (September 2024): 461–473.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 462, 467; Reproduced: p. 463, fig. 1
citation
Dell'acqua, Francesca. "The Virgin With the Book at Breedon on the Hill (Leicestershire)." In <em>Early Medieval Sculpture in Stone</em>, Sarah Semple and Jane Hawkes, eds., 283-297. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2025.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 289, figs. 20.3-20.4
creditline
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:21:36.693000
sourceId
143165
dept
Textiles
coll
T - Coptic
med
wool and dye
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
8b985aa90ac316a8