Oil Ampulla in the Form of a Dancing Bear (200s CE): Art, History and Details

Oil Ampulla in the Form of a Dancing Bear (200s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This bronze bear sits on its hindquarters with its front paws raised, head slightly turned left, and mouth gaping open. It wears a collar around its neck with two rings on either side, where a chain would be passed through to suspend the ampulla. The bear’s head is hinged at the back of the collar to open the vessel, with the lower jaw forming a spout. The eyes were once pierced to prevent an airlock within the ampulla. Bears, like many other animals in antiquity, were used as a form of entertainment, demonstrated here by the bear’s “dancing” pose.

Object facts

• Title: Oil Ampulla in the Form of a Dancing Bear
• Date: 200s CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.6 x 10.4 x 9.5 cm (5 3/4 x 4 1/8 x 3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1972.102

A detail from the museum

This ampulla was likely used to carry oil to the baths in antiquity.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1972." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (1973): 63-115.
• "États-Unis Acquisitions des Musées," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, No. 1249 (Feb. 1973)
• Kozloff, Arielle P. "A Bronze Menagerie." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 3 (1976): 75-88.

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.