Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragment of a Floor Mosaic: Adam and Eve

Date

late 400s–early 500s CE

Medium

marble and stone tesserae

Culture

early Byzantium, Northern Syria, Byzantine period, late 5th-early 6th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This mosaic panel representing the Fall of Adam and Eve once formed part of a much larger mosaic decorating the floor of an early Byzantine church in northern Syria. Here, Adam and Eve are portrayed sharing the forbidden fruit while covering themselves with large leaves. At the top of the panel, a Greek inscription reads, "And they ate and they were made naked," recalling the biblical text (Gen. 3:7) and highlighting the two moments in the biblical narrative of the Fall that are depicted here. In the Syrian village where this mosaic was created, few people could read and even fewer had access to books. The images within the church educated the community, leading 5th-century Pope Gregory the Great to describe religious images as "books for the illiterate."

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