Black-Figure Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Boxers (c. 550–540 BCE): Art, History and Details

Black-Figure Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Boxers (c. 550–540 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Class of London B 524.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Two stout young boxers, unbearded, face off on this small wine jug. Curiously, while one boxer has both hands wrapped for fighting (in leather straps known as himantes), the other has left one hand bare, holding it up to fend off punches. The seated figure at left, with one hand raised, may be a judge. The standing figure at right, whose white hair and beard are now mostly gone, is likely a spectator.

Object facts

• Title: Black-Figure Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Boxers
• Date: c. 550–540 BCE
• Creator attribution: Class of London B 524
• Culture: Greek, Attic
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.3 cm (8 3/4 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1916.1062

A detail from the museum

An ancient boxing match (or pyx) continued until one boxer could not (or would not) continue.

Collection credit

Gift of Amadio Canessa

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
• Pevnick, Seth. "Ancient Artworks Echo the Origins of the Olympic Games," Medium (July 2021).
• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 26-37.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.