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

Jonah Praying (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:

The Old Testament prophet Jonah is shown with his hands raised in prayer. It is unclear which moment of the biblical story of Jonah is depicted here. He may be praying in the belly of the sea monster. He might likewise be pleading with the Lord for the city of Nineveh’s destruction or lamenting the withering of the gourd beneath which he sought shelter after fleeing Nineveh.

Object facts

• Title: Jonah Praying
• Date: 280–90 CE
• Culture: Anatolia, late Roman-early Christian
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 47.5 x 14.8 x 20.3 cm (18 11/16 x 5 13/16 x 8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Early Christian
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1965.240

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wixom, William. "Early Christian Sculptures at Cleveland." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 3 (1967): 67-88.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Margaret English Frazer, and Kurt Weitzmann. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Museum, 1977.
• Kitzinger, Ernst. 1978. "The Cleveland Marbles". I Monumenti Cristiani Preconstantiniani. 653-675.

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.