Collection Online as of March 27, 2023

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

c. 530 BC

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

Fun Fact

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.

Class of Vatican 440

Attic vase painters

Provenance

?-1929

(Mr. Mario de Ciccio, Naples, Italy, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1929-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 303205 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk

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

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

Exhibition history

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).