Collection Online as of April 1, 2023

Red-Figure Ram-Head Rhyton (Drinking Vessel): Symposiasts; Satyr and Maenad

c. 480–470 BC

attributed to Brygos Painter

(Greek, Attic, active c. 490–470 BC)

Greek, Attic

Ceramic

Overall: 19 x 12.8 cm (7 1/2 x 5 1/16 in.); Diameter of rim: 11.4 cm (4 1/2 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1988.8

Location

102B Greek

Fun Fact

This vessel once had a foot, but only a bit of its stem remains.

Description

Although now missing nearly half of its mold-made ram’s head, this rhyton, a kind of drinking horn, retains most of its painted red-figure sections. On the wheel-made bowl above, three symposiasts recline at a drinking party: a youth wearing a kidaris (flapped Scythian hat) and two bearded men holding drinking cups. The youth plays the pipes, while a lyre hangs nearby and one man throws his head back in song. The letters around them, which do not spell out known words, may allude to the music in the air. Flanking the handle are a pipe-playing satyr and a dancing maenad (only partially preserved).

Provenance

Ariel Herrmann, New York, NY

?-1988

(Acanthus Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1988-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 44593 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk

Guy, Robert. "A Ram's Head Rhyton Signed by Charinos," Arts in Virginia 21.2 (1981): 2-15. See figs. 9-11, pp. 5-6, 13 (n. 14).

Slater, William J. Dining in a Classical Context. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991. p. 79, no. 6, fig. 9-10

J. Paul Getty Museum. Greek vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu, Calif: The Museum, 1983. p. 79, n. 33 and 82, n. 40

Boulter, C. G., and Kurt T. Luckner. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 1984. pp. 20, 5

"The Year in Review for 1988." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 2 (1989): 30-75. pp. 49, 68 www.jstor.org

Miller, Margaret Christina. "Adoption and Adaptation of Achaemenid Metalware Forms in Attic Black-Gloss Ware of the Fifth Century," Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran. Band 26 (1993): 109-146. See Tafel 25,2, with pp. 122-124.

Miller, Margaret Christina. Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century B.C.: A Study in Cultural Receptivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp. 141-142, fig. 48.

Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. pp. 23-24, PL.(1805) 59.1-7

Neer, Richard T. Style and Politics in Athenian Vase-Painting: The Craft of Democracy, Ca. 530-460 B.C.E. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 21, fig. 3.

Topper, Kathryn. The Imagery of the Athenian Symposium. 2012. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 87, fig. 31.

Sumption, Merle R., and Jack Lyle Landes. Planning Functional School Buildings. New York: Harper, 1957. p. 87, fig. 31

Ramón Corzo Sánchez. "The golden ram at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum", Buletina = Boletín = Bulletin. Bilbao : Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa = Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao = Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, no. 7, 2013, pp. 15-47. CMA vase in fig. 13.

Exhibition history

The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).