Doorknocker with a Satyr Pulling an Ox's Horns (1800s): Art, History and Details

Doorknocker with a Satyr Pulling an Ox's Horns (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Andrea Riccio (Italian, c. 1470–1532).

The work and its context

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

Fanciful bronzes such as this one were extremely popular in the late 1500s in the north of Italy, where sculptors such as Andrea Riccio and Severo da Ravenna often featured bizarre imaginary creatures in their sculptures. These artists exerted a long-lasting influence on their peers and followers for the remainder of the 1500s. However, this sculpture was not made in the 1500s. Based on the weight and style of the Doorknocker, it is most likely that it was made in the 1800s to mimic the style of Riccio and his followers. This sculpture is solid; in the 1500s artists created hollow sculptures to reduce the costs of the object and to decrease the chances of flaws in the sculpture. However, in the 1800s when better bronze casting technology evolved and the price of the metal was less costly, artists created solid bronze sculptures based on sixteenth-century designs. In particular, there was a considerable market in England for Renaissance revival doorknockers to be used decoratively on pub doors.

Object facts

• Title: Doorknocker with a Satyr Pulling an Ox's Horns
• Date: 1800s
• Creator attribution: Andrea Riccio (Italian, c. 1470–1532)
• Culture: Italy, early 16th Century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 8.8 x 25.2 x 8.8 cm (3 7/16 x 9 15/16 x 3 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1948.487

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Severance A. Millikin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "Paduan Bronzes by Riccio." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 3 (March 1949): 33-35.

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.