Oinochoe (Wine Jug) in the Form of a Woman's Head (c. 475–450 BCE): Art, History and Details

Oinochoe (Wine Jug) in the Form of a Woman's Head (c. 475–450 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Class N.

The work and its context

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

Mold-made vases in the form of human heads became popular in Athens in the fifth century BC. Although some represent male figures (including Herakles, Dionysos, and satyrs) and often take the form of drinking cups, wine jugs in the form of women’s heads are most common. Unusual on this example are the incised ears.

Object facts

• Title: Oinochoe (Wine Jug) in the Form of a Woman's Head
• Date: c. 475–450 BCE
• Creator attribution: Class N
• Culture: Greek, Attic
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Overall: 15.8 cm (6 1/4 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1926.520

A detail from the museum

The artist used white paint for the eyes and an ivy wreath, now partly lost.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
• Beazley, J. D., J. D. Beazley, and J. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Second Edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.
• Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.

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.