Spoon with Saint Paul as an Athlete (350–400): Art, History and Details

Spoon with Saint Paul as an Athlete (350–400) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Silver spoons with swan neck handles (ligulae) were popular in the Late Roman Empire. This late antique spoon is unique because it is decorated with the nude figure of a victorious athlete identified in an inscription as PAVLVS (Paul). It is tempting to interpret the juxtaposition of the name with a classical representation of an athlete as a subtle allusion to a passage in Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9:24-27), in which the apostle characterizes himself as an "athlete of Christ." While this interpretation may imply that the spoon’s owner was a Christian, it does not imply a religious function for the object, which was likely used for display or fine dining.

Object facts

• Title: Spoon with Saint Paul as an Athlete
• Date: 350–400
• Culture: late Roman Empire, perhaps Syria, early Byzantine, 4th century
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: silver, silver gilt, and niello
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.6 x 5.6 cm (1 13/16 x 2 3/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1964.39

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• Wixom, William D. “A Mystery Spoon from the Fourth Century.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 5 (May 1970): 141–148.

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.