Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) · textile
Resist-Dyed Hanging with Biblical Scenes
Description
[Egypt, Byzantine period] This hanging textile features biblical scenes that early Christian people would have recognized. At left, the upper register shows the Virgin Mary and Christ child on a cross-legged stool. As a Coptic inscription indicates, the three kings approach from the right, carrying gifts. The middle register on the left may depict the baptism of Christ while the other three figures separated by columns appear to illustrate a New Testament miracle in which Christ feeds a large crowd with only five loaves of bread and two fish. In the lower register, the Old Testament scene of the prophet Jonah being swallowed by a whale is still recognizable.
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
Transcription
Greek inscriptions identify the various scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Above the first of the Magi in the upper register can be seen the two letters "XP" from the Greek work for gold. At the left of the middle register are two figures, the first almost destroyed and the second identified by the inscription, "EIWANNHC," as John. In the lower register is a portrayal of Jonah thrown up on the shore with the big fish beside him and accompanied by the inscription, "EIWNAC." Moses, almost completely destroyed, is only identifiable by his inscription, "MWCHC."Cross-references (2)
- Wikidata Q60762722 tier-1
- CMA-id 128462 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.