The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 4, 2023

Pawing Bull

500–475 BC

South Italy, Lucania, Greece, early 5th Century BC

Bronze

Overall: 10.6 x 5 cm (4 3/16 x 1 15/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1930.336

Location

102C Greek

Fun Fact

This solid-cast bronze bull is nearly intact, missing only its tail.

Description

With its head slightly lowered and right foreleg raised in a pawing motion, this robust bull seems poised for action. The pose closely resembles that of bulls on coins minted at Thurii, a Greek colony in South Italy, but the statuette seems earlier in date and could have other associations. Perhaps the bull once carried the princess Europa, for example, or battled a lion or a hero. Alternatively, it may have stood alone as a small-scale offering, representing the actual bulls sometimes sacrificed to deities.

Provenance
Before 1930
Professor Heinrich Bulle, Würzburg, Germany
1930-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, purchased from Dr. Jacob Hirsch, through Harold Parsons
Citations
S. Wunderlich. "A Statuette of a Bull." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 18, no. 3 (1931): 52-54. www.jstor.org
Jantzen, Ulf. Bronzewerkstätten in Grossgriechenland und Sizilien. Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1937. Pp. 13, 27, Taf. 9, fig. 38.
Fraser, A.D. "The Bronze Bull in Cleveland," Humanistic Studies in Honor of John Calvin Metcalf, University of Virginia Studies, vol. 1 (Charlottesville, VA, 1941): 1-11.
Elderkin, G. W. American Journal of Archaeology 46, no. 1 (1942): 149 (review of Fraser 1941). doi:10.2307/499117.
Bieber, Margarete. "Greek Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art," Art in America Vol. 31, No. 3 (July 1943). Pp. 113-114 (Fig. 3), 119.
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 16 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 22 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 22 archive.org
Cooney, John D. "A Medley of Bulls." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 1 (1971): 10-19. www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 24 archive.org
Holloway, R. Ross. Art and Coinage in Magna Graecia. Bellinzona [Switzerland]: Edizioni Arte e Moneta, 1978. Pp. 55, 129 (ill.).
Allentown Art Museum, Gloria Ferrari, and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway. Aspects of Ancient Greece: An Exhibition Organized by the Allentown Art Museum with the Cooperation of Gloria Ferrari Pinney and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway ... Allentown Art Museum, September 16 Through December 30, 1979. [Allentown, Pa.]: The Museum, 1979. Pp. 208-9, cat. 101.
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
Exhibition history

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (September 11-October 10, 1965).

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

Ancient Art of Greece and Rome. Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA (organizer) (September 16-December 29, 1979).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.336