The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 7, 2023

Protocorinthian (Early Black-Figure) Aryballos (Oil Flask): Animals

c. 650–640 BC

Greek, Corinthian

Ceramic

Overall: 13.7 cm (5 3/8 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1915.532

Location

102B Greek

Fun Fact

Artists may have used a compass-like tool to create the intricate scale patterns.

Description

Tongues encircle the rim, shoulder, and base of this small oil vessel, while two carefully incised bands of scales frame an animal frieze. Here, amid dot rosettes, are a bull, dog, and goat, all facing right, and a left-facing lion with head turned back. The black glaze has misfired red in many places, while added red enlivens numerous tongues, scales, and internal details.

Provenance
1915
Through Harold Woodbury Parsons, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1915-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 1001464 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
R. H. "Recent Accessions of Greek Pottery." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 10, no. 10 (1923): 178-91. www.jstor.org
Benson, J. L. "Some Notes on Corinthian Vase-Painters." American Journal of Archaeology 60, no. 3 (1956). p. 221, Pl.69, Figs. 7-8 www.jstor.org
Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 4, plate 3, 2-5
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1915.532