Collection

Rooster, c. A.D. 400

Roman


The bird and animal motifs seen on early Christian mosaics derive from Near Eastern and Greco-Roman prototypes. These pagan images carried over into Early Christian art, expressing new spiritual concepts. As a rooster or cock, this long-necked bird with a red beak and wattle might allude to the episode of a rooster crowing in the Denial of Peter; as such, it would symbolize Peter’s repentance.

Provenance

Provenance

(Elie Borowski (1913-2003), Basel, Switzerland);

purchased by Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, 1972.