Griffin Protome (625–575 BCE): Art, History and Details

Griffin Protome (625–575 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This bird-like head and neck, with sharp beak and tongue, belongs to a griffin, a fantastic bird/lion hybrid prominently found in both Greek and Near Eastern artwork. Often, as here, the griffin has large upright ears (probably feline, in keeping with its lion body) as well as a knob-like projection atop its head. The scaly neck terminates in a flange once pierced with holes for connection to the shoulder of a large bronze cauldron, which would have been ornamented with three or more such griffins.

Object facts

• Title: Griffin Protome
• Date: 625–575 BCE
• Culture: Greece, Ionian
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.9 cm (5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1927.146

A detail from the museum

Fossilized Protoceratops dinosaur bones may lie behind the eagle/lion form of the mythical griffin.

Collection credit

The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Benson, J. L. 1960. “Unpublished Griffin Protomes in American Collections.” Antike Kunst 3 (2): 58–70.

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.