Floor Mosaic Panel: Grape Harvester with Peacock (400s): Art, History and Details

Floor Mosaic Panel: Grape Harvester with Peacock (400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This group of mosaics may be from a church at Maaut El Naaman in northern Syria. The panel depicting Adam and Eve includes a Greek inscription that translates as: "And they ate, [and they] were made naked," from the book of Genesis (3:7–8). It is possible that the mosaic belonged to a pavement illustrating the Garden of Eden. The Grape Harvester with a Peacock also conveys well-known Christian themes. The grapes represent the Eucharistic wine and thus the blood of Christ, while the peacock was a symbol of immortality.

Object facts

• Title: Floor Mosaic Panel: Grape Harvester with Peacock
• Date: 400s
• Culture: Byzantium, Northern Syria, Byzantine period, 5th century
• Type: Mosaic
• Technique: marble tesserae
• Dimensions: Overall: 133.5 x 144.8 cm (52 9/16 x 57 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.112

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.