Artwork Page for Pawing Bull

Details / Information for Pawing Bull

Pawing Bull

500–475 BCE

South Italy, Lucania, Greek

Medium
bronze
Measurements
Overall: 10.6 x 5 cm (4 3/16 x 1 15/16 in.)
Weight: 3.34 kg
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1930.336
Public Domain
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Location
102C Greek
Print
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Did You Know?

This solid-cast bronze bull is nearly intact, missing only its tail.

Description

With its head slightly lowered and right foreleg raised in a pawing motion, this robust bull seems poised for action. The pose closely resembles that of bulls on coins minted at Thurii, a Greek colony in South Italy, but the statuette seems earlier in date and could have other associations. Perhaps the bull once carried the princess Europa, for example, or battled a lion or a hero. Alternatively, it may have stood alone as a small-scale offering, representing the actual bulls sometimes sacrificed to deities.
A bronze sculpture depicts a bull with a mottled green and brown patina, facing right with its head lowered and right leg tucked toward its chest. Shallow ridges texture the neck below small horns and ears, the figure's rounded musculature catching the light. Ending abruptly at a flat, textured rear where the tail is missing, the aged surface alternates between smooth patches and the rough grain of the fragmented metal.

Pawing Bull

500–475 BCE

South Italy, Lucania, Greek

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