Icon of the Virgin and Child (500s CE): Art, History and Details

Icon of the Virgin and Child (500s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

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.

Object facts

• Title: Icon of the Virgin and Child
• Date: 500s CE
• Culture: Egypt, Byzantine period
• Type: Textile
• Technique: wool and dye
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: T - Coptic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1967.144

A detail from the museum

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.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Schiller, Gertrud. Ikonographie der Christlichen Kunst. [Gütersloh]: Gütersloher Verlagshaus G. Mohn, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. "An Icon of the Virgin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 1 (1969)

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.