Mosaic Fragment with Grazing Camel

5th century

Byzantine; Eastern Mediterranean, probably Syria

This image of a grazing camel probably came from a larger composition with other animals that decorated the floor of a semipublic space within a private home, such as a reception or dining room. This animal is represented against a white ground decorated with florets. A bell hangs from the camel’s neck as it reaches toward an object, perhaps a vessel filled with water, at the lower right. The knobby contours of the camel’s body are accentuated by areas of shading in subtly modulated colors, including black, brown, brick red, and olive green.

Status: On View, Gallery 153
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Culture: Byzantine
Title: Mosaic Fragment with Grazing Camel
Place: Byzantine Empire (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 301 CE–500 CE
Medium: Stone in mortar
Dimensions: 143 × 166.5 × 6.5 cm (56 1/4 × 61 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Mayer
Reference Number: 1970.1065
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/35355/manifest.json

“Raff, Katharine A. 2022. “”The Waiting-Servant Motif in a Late Antique Textile in Chicago: Iconography, Visuality, and Materiality”” Arts 11, no. 3: 64. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11030064. Note 77.
Karen B. Alexander, “”From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,”” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 39.
J.S., “”Notes on Six Late Antique Mosaics,”” Calendar of the Art Institute of Chicago 65, 5 (November 1971), pp. 1-6”

“Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 153, November 11, 2012–present.
Art Insitute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012. “

Asfar Bros., Beirut, Lebanon, by 1968; sold to Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Mayer, Winnetka, IL, 1968 [according to correspondence in curatorial file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, December 29, 1970.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.