The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 14, 2026

A reddish-brown ceramic vessel depicts a crouching frog facing left. Its rounded body features painted black and white circles and stripes, with black lines defining the mouth and legs. Above the head sit large, raised eyes, while the lower belly is an off-white color. A dark, looped handle is positioned behind the head, and a flaring cylindrical spout rises from the rear.

Frog-Shaped Guttus (Oil Flask)

300s BCE

South Italian, Apulian

ceramic
Diameter: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.); Overall: 5.8 x 11.2 x 9.1 cm (2 5/16 x 4 7/16 x 3 9/16 in.)
Gift of Keith P. Smith 1985.176
Location: 102D Pre-Roman

Did You Know?

The philosopher Plato famously compared the Greeks living along Mediterranean coastlines to “frogs around a pond.”

Description

Guttus is a Latin word referring to a small vessel with vertical spout and ring handle, probably used for pouring small amounts of precious liquids. Often, mold-made ceramic gutti take the form of animals, with realistic painted decoration. Here, the lifelike frog features black stripes and alternating black and white circles.
  • ?-1985
    Keith P. Smith, Bath, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1985-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 1002931 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Kozloff, Arielle P. "Two South Italian Vases: Fish Plate and Frog Bottle." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 10 (1986): 406-14. Figs. 8-10. 25159967.
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1985." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (1986) p. 62, no. 9 www.jstor.org
    Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. p. 55, pl. 100.4-5
    Le sanglier et le satyre: vases plastiques hellénistiques de Grande Grèce et de Sicile. Kilchberg/Zürich: Akanthus, 2015. Mentioned: P. 116, no A339
  • {{cite web|title=Frog-Shaped Guttus (Oil Flask)|url=false|author=|year=300s BCE|access-date=14 August 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.176