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Medieval Art
All artworks
Period
Late Antique
Date
early 300s
Collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Object no.
468759

Table Base with Jonah Swallowed and Cast Up by the Big Fish

Unknown Roman sculptor, Asia Minor, early 300s

White marble table support carved with a sea monster swallowing and disgorging Jonah beside a merchant ship

The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Gift of John Todd Edgar, 1877 · Public domain

The record

Maker
Unknown Roman sculptor, Asia Minor
Date
early 300s
Medium
Marble, white
Dimensions
49.5 × 61 × 33.7 cm
Period
Late Antique

Why it matters

A marble support for a table, carved in the early fourth century, shows Jonah swallowed by a sea monster and then cast up on the shore. The story was read by early Christians as a foreshadowing of the Resurrection, and the classical form of the monster shows how new meanings were carried by an inherited visual language. The base was found at Tarsus, an early Christian city in Asia Minor.

The Met collection record