The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 18, 2024
Hippopotamus
332 BCE–395 CE
Overall: 6.2 cm (2 7/16 in.)
Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.100
Location: 103 Roman
Did You Know?
The word hippopotamus is a Greek compound word combining “horse” (hippos) and “river” (potamos).Description
This hippopotamus steps forward with its rear left leg lifted off the ground and its head arched upwards. The hippopotamus was a Nilotic animal associated with Egypt and the Nile River that was brought to Rome and put on display in the Colosseum as part of venationes, or wild beast hunts. The rise of “Egyptomania” in the Roman Empire surged under the emperor Hadrian (reigned AD 117–38). Extant Egyptian examples of hippopotamus figurines are less animated and made of materials such as stone or pottery rather than bronze, making the pose and materiality of this object distinctly Greco-Roman.- Purchased in Egypt (?) by Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.1958-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Kozloff, Arielle P. "A River Horse of a Different Empire or What are Hippopotami Doing on the Banks of the Tiber?" in Arthur Houghton et al., eds., Studies in Honor of Leo Mildenberg: Numismatics, Art Provenance, Archaeology (Wetteren, Belgium: Cultura Press, 1984), pp. 155-64, pl. 23, 1-3Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 483; Mentioned: p. 483-4
- CMA 1958, no. 214
- {{cite web|title=Hippopotamus|url=false|author=|year=332 BCE–395 CE|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.100