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 the Ancient Mediterranean 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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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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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.