The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Black-Figure Trefoil Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Europa on Bull

Black-Figure Trefoil Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Europa on Bull

c. 530 BCE

attributed to Class of Vatican 440

(Greek, Attic)
Greek, Attic
ceramic
Overall: 23.6 cm (9 5/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1929.978
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

The continent of Europe takes its name from Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus.

Description

Calmly seated sidesaddle on a bull, the woman depicted on the front of this small wine jug probably represents Europa, the Phoenician princess abducted by the Greek god Zeus. According to myth, Zeus either sent a bull or transformed himself into one, then carried Europa across the sea to Crete. There, she bore Zeus two or three sons, including the legendary king Minos. The bull ascended to the sky as the constellation Taurus.
  • ?-1929
    (Mr. Mario de Ciccio, Naples, Italy, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1929-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 303205 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    "Greek Vases." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 7, (July, 1930): 137-138 Mentioned: p. 138; Reproduced; p. 143 www.jstor.org
    Cox, Warren E. The Book of Pottery and Porcelain. New York: L. Lee and Shepard Co.; distributed by Crown Publishers, 1944. Vol. I, p. 53, pl. 12.
    Beazley, J. D. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. p. 422, No. 43
    Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 12, plate 17, 3-4 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC). Zürich: Artemis, 1981. IV, PL.34, EUROPA I 29, p. 169, Fig.11
    Carpenter, Thomas H., J. D. Beazley, Thomas Mannack, Melanie Mendonça, and Lucilla Burn. Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1989. p. 109
  • Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
  • {{cite web|title=Black-Figure Trefoil Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Europa on Bull|url=false|author=Class of Vatican 440|year=c. 530 BCE|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.978