Cleveland Museum of Art

Resist-Dyed Hanging with Biblical Scenes

Date

500–550

Medium

linen: resist-dyed, plain weave

Culture

Egypt, Byzantine period

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This hanging textile features biblical scenes that early Christian people would have recognized. At left, the upper register shows the Virgin Mary and Christ child on a cross-legged stool. As a Coptic inscription indicates, the three kings approach from the right, carrying gifts. The middle register on the left may depict the baptism of Christ while the other three figures separated by columns appear to illustrate a New Testament miracle in which Christ feeds a large crowd with only five loaves of bread and two fish. In the lower register, the Old Testament scene of the prophet Jonah being swallowed by a whale is still recognizable.

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