Horse-Shaped Drinking Vessel (200–325 CE): Art, History and Details

Horse-Shaped Drinking Vessel (200–325 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The horse was a favorite artistic subject in ancient Iran, where horse breeding flourished. This muscular Sasanian stallion was descended from the royal and sacred Nisean breed of the Achaemenian Persians. Although Sasanian horse trappings were elaborate, they did not include stirrups for mounting. In this rendition, the steed lies still, as camels in the Near East do today, waiting for its rider to mount. The medallions on each shoulder contain busts, perhaps of rulers of different parts of the Sasanian Empire, holding their rings of authority.

Object facts

• Title: Horse-Shaped Drinking Vessel
• Date: 200–325 CE
• Culture: Iran, Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: silver, partially gilt
• Dimensions: Overall: 12 x 10.8 x 32.7 cm (4 3/4 x 4 1/4 x 12 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Near Eastern Art
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1964.41

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• de la Ferté, Etienne Coche. “Palma et Laurus. Un Monogramme et Un Objet d’art Paléochrétiens En Relation Avec Les Courses de l’hippodrome.” Jahrbuch Der Berliner Museen, vol. 3, 1961, pp. 134–47.
• Musée du Petit Palais (Paris, France), and Roman Ghirshman. Sept Mille Ans D'art En Iran: [Exposition] Petit Palais, Octobre 1961 - Janvier 1962. [Paris]: Petit Palais, 1961.
• Ghirshman, Roman. Persian art: Parthian and Sassanian dynasties, 249 B.C.- A.D. 651. New York: Golden Press, 1962.

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.