Dillenberger Lecture 2008
"Sign of the Times": The Cleveland Marbles and the Visual Cultures of Pre-Constantinian Christianity

Anonymous,  Jonah Praying, ca. 275 C.E., Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund

Thursday, December 4
GTU Library Dinner Board Room (2nd floor).
Reception at 5 PM. Lecture at 6 PM.

Featuring Professor Donald A. McColl:
Nancy L. Underwood Associate Professor of Art History,
Chair, Department of Art History,
Director, Kohl Art Gallery, Washington College

The remarkable statuettes in the Cleveland Museum of Art representing the Good Shepherd and scenes from the life of Jonah, have long puzzled scholars of art, archaeology, history and religion. Allegedly found in the early 1960s in a large pithos, or jar, along with diminutive busts representing the same well-to-do Roman couple, they
would appear to offer a fascinating glimpse into a formative stage of
Christian image-making in the pre-Constantinian world. The very existence of three-dimensional objects, executed in such a bold, Hellenistic style, has forced scholars to reassess received wisdom on such subjects as the supposed aniconic stance and meager economic means of the earliest Christians. But without a better of understanding of when, where and why they were made, there is little we can do.

Hoping to foster wider acceptance and study of the Cleveland Marbles
(there are those who argue they are not authentic third-century
artifacts), this lecture takes us into the laboratory of a leading
geochemist, to the Roman Imperial marbles quarries of ancient Docimium (Asia
Minor), to the synagogues and house-churches of third-century Phrygia, to
the private homes of the Roman elite, to the archives of major museums, to
sites bearing marks of the widespread, illicit trade in antiquities, and
to the studios of accomplished yet elusive forgers.

I argue that the Cleveland marbles are not only authentic third-century
artifacts, but also attest to a highly syncretic form of Christian visual
culture that was virtually snuffed out with the coming of Constantine.