The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton

Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton

500–700

Did You Know?

Inlays once filled the buffalo eye sockets, perhaps of colored glass like that still present within some petals of the disc-shaped earrings.

Description

Recalling both Greek and Iranian traditions of head vases and rhyta (drinking horns), this unusual silver vessel combines the heads of a woman and a water buffalo. A filling hole on top and a pouring or drinking spout in front make clear its function. An inscription in Middle Persian on its back records its weight: probably 50 staters and three drachmae (close to its current weight of just over 700 grams, or about 1-1/2 pounds). The woman’s flat brow, straight nose, and widely set, heavy-lidded eyes—along with the sectarian mark in gold on her forehead—relate to art of the Indus River Valley and Hindu Kush regions of today’s Pakistan and Afghanistan. While we do not know for sure, numerous scholars have suggested that she may depict the Indian warrior goddess Durga, slayer of the buffalo demon.
  • ?-1964
    Dr. Elie Borowski, Toronto, Ontario, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1964-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 14 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Frank Chalton Francis. Fiftieth Anniversary Banquet: The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel, June 13, 1966. [Cleveland]: [The Museum], 1966. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 8-9 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Golden Anniversary Acquisition,” 1966, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Stechow, Wolfgang. "Cleveland's Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." Artnews 65, no. 5 (September 1966): 30-64.
    Published as: The Goddess Dravspa
    Reproduced: p. 35; Mentioned p. 63
    Shepherd, Dorothy G., and Joseph Ternbach. “Two Silver Rhyta.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 53, no. 8, 1966, pp. 289–317. Cover, inside cover. Fig.3 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 14 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 6 archive.org
    Harper, Prudence Oliver. The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire. New York: Asia Society, 1978. Reproduced: p. 68; mentioned: pl. 23, pp. 69-71
    Harper, Prudence Oliver. The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire. New York: Asia Society, 1978. pp. 69-71, no. 23.
    Brentjes, Burchard, and Karin Rührdanz. Mittelasien, Kunst des Islam. Leipzig: Seemann, VEB, 1979. Pl. 115.
    Carter, Martha L. “An Indo-Iranian Silver Rhyton in the Cleveland Museum.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 41, no. 4, 1979, pp. 309–25. doi.org
    Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Reproduced: p. 340, fig. 27 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. Discussed and reproduced p. 16.
    Châtelet, Albert, and Bernard Philippe Groslier. Histoire de l'art: peinture, sculpture, architecture, arts décoratifs. [Paris]: Larousse, 1998. p. 611
    Sugimura, Tō. Sekai bijutsu daizenshū = New history of world art. tōyō(17), tōyō(17). 1999. p. 155, fig. 171
    Louis, François. “The Hejiacun Rhyton and the Chinese Wine Horn (Gong): Intoxicating Rarities and Their Antiquarian History.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 67, no. 2, 2007, pp. 201–42. Discussed p. 207. Fig. 9. www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 60-1
    Minardi, Michele. 2015. "A Silver Rhyton from Afghanistan Held in the Cleveland Museum of Art and Its Historical Context," Journal asiatique 303.1: 59-86.
    Kosmin, Paul. "Banqueting on the Move." In Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings.Susanne Ebbinghaus,ed., 310-341. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Art Museums, 2018. Mentioned & reproduced: p. 333, fig. 7.25
    "Education." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 6 (November/December 2019): 24. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 24.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 54
  • All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 23, 1994-January 8, 1995).
    Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 26-October 9, 1983).
    The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire. Asia House Galleries (organizer) (January 12-March 11, 1978); The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (April 10-May 21, 1978); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 7-August 13, 1978).
    Masterpieces of 50 Centuries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (November 10, 1970-February 15, 1971).
    Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).
  • {{cite web|title=Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton|url=false|author=|year=500–700|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.96