Columbarium Tomb Plaque with the Monogram of Christ
400–800
- Medium
- terracotta
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 32.4 x 20.8 cm (12 3/4 x 8 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Spain (Visigothic or Byzantine)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Medieval Art
- Credit line
- Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr.
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This thick clay plaque covered a burial niche that contained the remains of the deceased in a simple communal tomb complex called a columbarium. The chi-rho monogram of Christ identifies the deceased as a Christian. The monogram was seen as representing Christ’s victory over death, while the letters that flank it, alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, symbolize Christ as the beginning and end of all things.
