Lebes (c. 480–460 BCE): Art, History and Details

Lebes (c. 480–460 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This bronze cauldron has a ring base with three spool feet. Appliqués shaped like birds with the heads of women decorate the shoulder on either side of the vessel. Two handles are fastened to loops on the top of each creature’s wings. The bird-women may represent sirens, mythical creatures that lured sailors with their singing, or harpies, wind spirits that stole food from the starving.

Object facts

• Title: Lebes
• Date: c. 480–460 BCE
• Culture: Greece
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 25.4 cm (10 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1928.857

A detail from the museum

The green surface found on old bronze is a corrosion product formed when copper in the metal reacts to carbon dioxide and water.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• R. H. “Art of the Early Greeks.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 10 (December 1928): 191–197.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Cooney, John D. “The Handle of a Lebes.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 52, no. 7 (September 1965): 194–197.

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.