The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 15, 2025

Ibis Eating a Lizard

100 BCE–100 CE

Italy, Rome, Roman Empire

bronze, hollow cast
Overall: 37.5 cm (14 3/4 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1974.3
Location: 103 Roman

Did You Know?

This sculpture was possibly used as a support for furniture, a candelabrum, or an incense burner.

Description

The ibis is an Egyptian bird, shown here standing firmly on both legs with a lizard in its beak. The bird rests on a two-tiered circular base, and a vertical stem with incised decoration extends above the ibis’s head. While an Egyptian animal, the image of the ibis devouring a lizard became common only in the Roman world, depicted in wall paintings and seen on Barbotine ware, a type of pottery. This sculpture may be unique, however, in showing this motif in the round.
  • Perhaps Alexandria.
    1974
    Purchased from Mohammed Yeganeh, Frankfurt
    1974-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Kozloff, Arielle P. "A Bronze Menagerie." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 3 (1976): 75-88. pp. 80-82 www.jstor.org
    Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 482; Mentioned: p. 482-3
  • Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975).
    CMA, 11 March-6 April 1975, The Year in Review for 1974, cat.: CMA Bulletin 62, no. 3 (March 1975), no. 6, illus. p. 65
  • {{cite web|title=Ibis Eating a Lizard|url=false|author=|year=100 BCE–100 CE|access-date=15 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1974.3