Rhyton (Drinking Vessel) in Shape of Sheep's Head

320-310 BCE

Attributed to the Painter of Leningrad 955
Greek; Tarentum (now Taranto), Apulia, Italy

Decorated tableware enlivened festive meals, and could have humerous intentions. This vessel fashioned in the shape of a sheep’s head is a special kind of drinking cup that cannot be set down when full, encouraging the guest who held it to drink a great deal of wine.

Status: On View, Gallery 151
Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Greek
Title: Rhyton (Drinking Vessel) in Shape of Sheep's Head
Place: Southern Italy (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 320 BCE–310 BCE
Medium: terracotta, red-figure
Dimensions: 20.9 × 11.4 × 12 cm (8 1/4 × 4 1/2 × 4 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Chester D. Tripp
Reference Number: 1986.883
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/105545/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 1986-87 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1987), p. 58.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 33.

Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012 - present.

Estate of Chester D. Tripp (July 25, 1882 - December 22, 1974); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1986.

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Rhyton (Drinking Vessel) in Shape of Sheep's Head

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.