Black-Figure Trefoil Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Europa on Bull (c. 530 BCE): Art, History and Details

Black-Figure Trefoil Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Europa on Bull (c. 530 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Class of Vatican 440 (Greek, Attic).

The work and its context

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

Calmly seated sidesaddle on a bull, the woman depicted on the front of this small wine jug probably represents Europa, the Phoenician princess abducted by the Greek god Zeus. According to myth, Zeus either sent a bull or transformed himself into one, then carried Europa across the sea to Crete. There, she bore Zeus two or three sons, including the legendary king Minos. The bull ascended to the sky as the constellation Taurus.

Object facts

• Title: Black-Figure Trefoil Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Europa on Bull
• Date: c. 530 BCE
• Creator attribution: Class of Vatican 440 (Greek, Attic)
• Culture: Greek, Attic
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Overall: 23.6 cm (9 5/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1929.978

A detail from the museum

The continent of Europe takes its name from Europa, a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
• "Greek Vases." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 7, (July, 1930): 137-138
• Cox, Warren E. The Book of Pottery and Porcelain. New York: L. Lee and Shepard Co.; distributed by Crown Publishers, 1944.

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.