Patera with Fluted Handle and Ram Head Finial (500–400 BCE): Art, History and Details

Patera with Fluted Handle and Ram Head Finial (500–400 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This patera is made from a shallow bronze dish attached to a fluted handle, terminating in a ram’s head. The ram’s head is realistically rendered through careful modeling and a high level of detail. Though the patera looks much like a modern frying pan, in antiquity it would have been used for pouring wine during important rituals.

Object facts

• Title: Patera with Fluted Handle and Ram Head Finial
• Date: 500–400 BCE
• Culture: Greece
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 24.2 cm (9 1/2 in.); Overall: 6.4 cm (2 1/2 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1981.6

A detail from the museum

Ivy leaves, like the tiny example found under the patera's handle, were associated with wine and revelry.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1981.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 2 (February 1982): 39–82.

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.