The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 15, 2024

Pawing Bull

Pawing Bull

500–475 BCE
bronze
Overall: 10.6 x 5 cm (4 3/16 x 1 15/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1930.336
Location: 102C Greek

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.
  • Before 1930
    Professor Heinrich Bulle, Würzburg, Germany
    1930-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, purchased from Dr. Jacob Hirsch, through Harold Parsons
  • S. Wunderlich. "A Statuette of a Bull." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 18, no. 3 (1931): 52-54. www.jstor.org
    Jantzen, Ulf. Bronzewerkstätten in Grossgriechenland und Sizilien. Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1937. Pp. 13, 27, Taf. 9, fig. 38.
    Fraser, A.D. "The Bronze Bull in Cleveland," Humanistic Studies in Honor of John Calvin Metcalf, University of Virginia Studies, vol. 1 (Charlottesville, VA, 1941): 1-11.
    Elderkin, G. W. American Journal of Archaeology 46, no. 1 (1942): 149 (review of Fraser 1941). doi:10.2307/499117.
    Bieber, Margarete. "Greek Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art," Art in America Vol. 31, No. 3 (July 1943). Pp. 113-114 (Fig. 3), 119.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 16 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 22 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 22 archive.org
    Cooney, John D. "A Medley of Bulls." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 1 (1971): 10-19. www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 24 archive.org
    Holloway, R. Ross. Art and Coinage in Magna Graecia. Bellinzona [Switzerland]: Edizioni Arte e Moneta, 1978. Pp. 55, 129 (ill.).
    Allentown Art Museum, Gloria Ferrari, and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway. Aspects of Ancient Greece: An Exhibition Organized by the Allentown Art Museum with the Cooperation of Gloria Ferrari Pinney and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway ... Allentown Art Museum, September 16 Through December 30, 1979. [Allentown, Pa.]: The Museum, 1979. Pp. 208-9, cat. 101.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
  • Ancient Art of Greece and Rome. Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA (organizer) (September 16-December 29, 1979).
    Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).
    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=Pawing Bull|url=false|author=|year=500–475 BCE|access-date=15 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.336