Cleveland Museum of Art

Floor Mosaic Panel: Grape Harvester with Peacock

Date

400s

Medium

marble tesserae

Culture

Byzantium, Northern Syria, Byzantine period, 5th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This group of mosaics may be from a church at Maaut El Naaman in northern Syria. The panel depicting Adam and Eve includes a Greek inscription that translates as: "And they ate, [and they] were made naked," from the book of Genesis (3:7–8). It is possible that the mosaic belonged to a pavement illustrating the Garden of Eden. The Grape Harvester with a Peacock also conveys well-known Christian themes. The grapes represent the Eucharistic wine and thus the blood of Christ, while the peacock was a symbol of immortality.

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