Italo-Geometric Bird Askos (Oil Vessel): Hunter (Herakles?) and Stag

Ask the Scholar

Page 1 of 1

I can add historical knowledge about this page.

Page image

Document 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.

Page data

Page: 1
Source index: 0
Type: photo
Media ID: a9830cfb2a424495
Size: unknown

Document data

ID: 156896
Core: obj
Type: object

DTO data

{
    "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": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.1",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60746257"
    ],
    "creators": [
        379301
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Ceramic"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_web.jpg",
    "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"
}

Context sent to Scholar

Document identity

{
    "localId": "156896",
    "label": "Italo-Geometric Bird Askos (Oil Vessel): Hunter (Herakles?) and Stag",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

Document 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": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.1",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60746257"
    ],
    "creators": [
        379301
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Ceramic"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_web.jpg",
    "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"
}

Document 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",
            "url": "http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/A0EE3687-EB44-4C6B-9648-E34337AF6E38"
        },
        {
            "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",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161457"
        },
        {
            "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"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.1",
    "creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 08:10:06.268000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 156896,
    "dept": "Greek and Roman Art",
    "coll": "GR - Etruscan",
    "med": "ceramic",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

Page context

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.1/1993.1_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "a9830cfb2a424495"
}

Survos folio page chat

Ask the Scholar

Page image

Document source description

Page data

Document data

Context sent to Scholar