Jonah Cast Up (280–90 CE): Art, History and Details

Jonah Cast Up (280–90 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

After disobeying the Lord’s command to proclaim judgment on the city of Nineveh, the Old Testament prophet Jonah was cast into the sea and swallowed by a sea monster. He spent three days praying inside the beast before being cast ashore. Here, the beast spits Jonah out of its mouth.

Object facts

• Title: Jonah Cast Up
• Date: 280–90 CE
• Culture: Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 41.5 x 36 x 18.5 cm (16 5/16 x 14 3/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Early Christian
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1965.238

A detail from the museum

The fearsome creature spitting Jonah out of its mouth is a creation of the artist's imagination derived from the ancient Greek cetos, a sea monster. Like other mythical beasts, such as the griffin and the sphinx, this monster combines elements of several different animals. Which ones do you see when looking at this fantastical creature?

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Sculpture-Jonah and the Shepherd" Time (September 21, 1966).
• Burton, Richard "Fifty Years of the Cleveland Museum of Art: Some Golden Anniversary Acquisitions," The Connoisseur (October 1966).

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.