Ewer (Pitcher) with Game, Seafood, and Wine Scenes (late 300s CE): Art, History and Details

Ewer (Pitcher) with Game, Seafood, and Wine Scenes (late 300s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This magnificent pitcher, called a ewer, was almost certainly meant for serving wine in the dining room of a wealthy home. On its surface are images in three bands representing the expected bounty of the hunt. Deer pursued by a lioness and hares chased by dogs appear in the top band, signifying the wealth of game the owner hoped to have on the family table. In the lowest band are edible sea creatures, while the center features the merry followers of the Roman wine god Bacchus (Dionysos in Greek).

Object facts

• Title: Ewer (Pitcher) with Game, Seafood, and Wine Scenes
• Date: late 300s CE
• Culture: Byzantium, Syria(?), Byzantine period
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: silver with traces of gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 40 x 14.3 cm (15 3/4 x 5 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1957.497

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund with the addition of a gift from Mrs. Edward B. Greene

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "Early Byzantine Silver." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 45, no. 3 (March 1958): 35-40.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

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.