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Source Description
This bird-shaped <em>askos </em>(oil vessel), with a tall filling spout and a pierced beak for pouring, perhaps held perfumed oil for a funerary function. Although the shape likely stems from Italian tradition, the abundantly painted geometric decoration, covering nearly every available surface, derives originally from Greece. Thus scholars have suggested that an immigrant Greek potter working in Etruria may have made the vessel. The sole narrative scene shows a man with a spear leading an antlered animal. If not an anonymous hunter, this could be the earliest known representation of the hero Herakles performing his third labor: capturing the golden-antlered Keryneian hind, or female deer.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
156896
label
Italo-Geometric Bird Askos (Oil Vessel): Hunter (Herakles?) and Stag
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
156896
contentType
object
title
Italo-Geometric Bird Askos (Oil Vessel): Hunter (Herakles?) and Stag
description
This bird-shaped <em>askos </em>(oil vessel), with a tall filling spout and a pierced beak for pouring, perhaps held perfumed oil for a funerary function. Although the shape likely stems from Italian tradition, the abundantly painted geometric decoration, covering nearly every available surface, derives originally from Greece. Thus scholars have suggested that an immigrant Greek potter working in Etruria may have made the vessel. The sole narrative scene shows a man with a spear leading an antlered animal. If not an anonymous hunter, this could be the earliest known representation of the hero Herakles performing his third labor: capturing the golden-antlered Keryneian hind, or female deer.
date
c. 700 BCE
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60746257
creators
379301
genreSpecific
Ceramic
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 33.5 x 15.5 cm (13 3/16 x 6 1/8 in.); Diameter of foot: 11.9 cm (4 11/16 in.)
cul
Etruscan, likely made at Vulci
accession
1993.1
Source extras
tec
ceramic
tombstone
Italo-Geometric Bird Askos (Oil Vessel): Hunter (Herakles?) and Stag, c. 700 BCE. Attributed to Bisenzio Class. Ceramic; overall: 33.5 x 15.5 cm (13 3/16 x 6 1/8 in.); diameter of foot: 11.9 cm (4 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1993.1
collection
GR - Etruscan
didYouKnow
This askos may feature the earliest known representation of Herakles's third labor, the Keryneian hind.
citations
citation
Beazley Archive. n.d. <em>Beazley Archive Pottery Database</em>. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
page_number
BAPD 1002949
citation
Muscarella, Oscar White. <em>Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection</em>. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1974.
page_number
no. 65
citation
Brommer, F. "Herakles und die Hirschkuh," <em>Archäologischer Anzeiger</em> (1977).
page_number
pp. 479-81, figs. 1-2
citation
Settgast, Jürgen, Ulrich Gehrig, Eva Strommenger, and Klaus Vierneisel. <em>Von Troja bis Amarna: the Norbert Schimmel collection</em>, New York. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1978.
page_number
p. 70, cat. 67.
citation
La Rocca, E. "Crateri in argilla figulina del geometrico recente a Vulci. Aspetti della produzione ceramica d'imitazione euboica nel Villanoviano avanzato," <em>Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome, Antiquité</em> 90 (1978).
page_number
pp. 496-97, fig. 24
citation
Fiumi, Enrico, and Mario Giustarini. <em>Studi per Enrico Fiumi.</em> Pisa: Pacini, 1979.
page_number
p. 24, no. 4, pl. 3.1, 26-28
citation
Colonna, G. "Parergon. A proposito del frammento geometrico dal Foro," <em>Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome</em>, <em>Antiquité</em> 92 (1980).
page_number
p. 603
citation
Dik, R. "Un'anfora etrusca con raffigurazioni orientalizzanti da Veio," <em>Mededeelingen van het Nederl. Historisch Instituut te Rome</em> 42, n.s. 7 (1980).
page_number
p. 20
citation
Dik, R. "Un'anfora orientalizzante etrusca nel Museo Allard Pierson," <em>BABesch</em> 56 (1981).
page_number
p. 63, n. 66
citation
Cristofani, Mauro, and Piera Bocci Pacini.<em> Gli Etruschi in Maremma: popolamento e attività produttive</em>. Milano: Silvana, 1981.
page_number
p. 223, fig. 210
citation
Isler, Hans Peter. <em>Ceramisti greci in Etruria in epoca tardogeometrica.</em> Lugano: Baggini-Bizzozero, 1983.
page_number
p. 23, no. A b 6
citation
Camporeale, Giovannangelo.<em> La caccia in Etruria</em>. Roma: G. Bretschneider, 1984.
page_number
p. 25, B no. 4, pl. 2b
citation
Williams, D. "Greek Potters and their descendants in Campania and Southern Etruria, c. 720-630 BC," in British Museum, and Judith Swaddling (ed.).<em> Italian iron age artefacts: in the British Museum : papers of the Sixth British Museum Classical Colloquium.</em> London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1986. Ch. 30 (pp. 295-304).
page_number
Mentioned on pp. 297, 300, n. 41.
citation
Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae. 5.2, 5.2. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae : LIMC / Publié Par La Fondation Pour Le Lexicon Iconographicum Mithologiae Classicae (LIMC)!. Zurich: Artemis, 1990.
page_number
51, no. 2206
citation
Sotheby's (Firm). <em>Antiquities from the Norbert Schimmel Collection</em>. 16 December 1992.
page_number
cat. no. 39.
citation
"1993 Annual Report." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 81, no. 6 (1994)
page_number
Mentioned: p. 158; Reproduced: p. 218
citation
Lorenz, Thuri, Gabriele Erath, Manfred Lehner, and Gerda Schwarz. <em>Komos: Festschrift Für Thuri Lorenz Zum 65</em>. Geburtstag. Wien: Phoibos Verlag, 1997.
page_number
p. 50, n. 18
citation
Neils, Jenifer. "Hercle in Cleveland." <em>Cleveland Studies in the History of Art</em> 3 (1998): 6-21.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 7-8, figs. 3a-c.
url
www.jstor.org/stable/20079696.
citation
Cristofani Martelli, Marina, and Benedetta Adembri. <em>La ceramica degli etruschi: la pittura vascolare.</em> [Milano?]: Istituto Geografico de Agostini, 2000.
page_number
Discussed and illustrated, pp. 246-248, no. 11.
citation
Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg.<em> Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
page_number
p. 43-44, pl. 82-83
citation
Sims, Lowery Stokes. <em>The persistence of geometry: form, content, and culture in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.
page_number
p. 115, color repr. p. 33, no. 9
citation
Isler, Hans Peter. <em>Ein geometrischer Krater aus Vulci.</em> [Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar]: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar], 1982.
page_number
p. 175, n. 23
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:10:06.268000
sourceId
156896
dept
Greek and Roman Art
coll
GR - Etruscan
med
ceramic
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
a9830cfb2a424495