The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Fragment of a Goat's Head

Fragment of a Goat's Head

c. 500–475 BCE
limestone
Overall: 35 cm (13 3/4 in.)
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1926.538
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Pan, the goat-headed god, is often called a son of Hermes, but sources disagree.

Description

Initially identified as a horse head, this fragmentary sculpture, once painted reddish-brown, has a beard, indicating that it depicts a goat. Its large size, however, together with its neck position and unusual round eye, have all prompted questions. Was the head broken from a rearing goat? Or did it represent Pan, the rustic shepherd god often depicted as half-man, half-goat? If Pan, some scholars have connected it with a fifth-century BC Athenian sanctuary erected to thank the god for aid in battle. An alleged provenance near the Athenian Acropolis supported this idea, but scientific tests suggest otherwise.
  • 1926-1927
    Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1927-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d. A120 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
    Howard, Rossiter. "The Head of an Archaic Goat." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 14, no. 3 (1927). p. 36 www.jstor.org
    International Studio (June 1927). p. 76
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 74 archive.org
    Bieber, Margarete. "Greek Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art," Art in America Vol. 31, No. 3 (July 1943). p. 113
    Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. [Catalogue]. 1958. no. 222
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 20 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 20 archive.org
    Robinson, Henry S. "A Greek Head: Animal or Hybrid?" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 7 (1977): 231-41. Illustrated on cover and Figs. 1-5. www.jstor.org
    Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. The Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture. Princeton University Press, 1977. Pp. 162, 180, Fig. 50.
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 24 archive.org
    Walter, Hans. Pans Wiederkehr: der Gott der griechischen Wildnis. München: R. Piper, 1980. pp. 60-62, pls. 44-46
    Vermeule, Cornelius C. Greek and Roman Sculpture in America: Masterpieces in Public Collections in the United States and Canada. Malibu, Calif: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1981. P. 36, No. 11.
    Kawami, Trudy S. "Greek Art and Persian Taste: Some Animal Sculptures from Persepolis." American Journal of Archaeology 90, no. 3 (1986): 259-67. Mentioned on p. 266, ill. pl. 16, fig. 10. www.jstor.org
    N. Herz, A.P. Grimanis, H.S. Robinson, D.B. Wenner, and M. Vassilaki-Grimani. "Science versus Art History: The Cleveland Museum Head of Pan and the Miltiades Marathon Victory Monument," in Archaeometry 31.2 (1989): 161-168. doi.org
    Sekunda, Nick. Marathon 490 BC: The First Persian War. Oxford: Osprey, 2002. p. 84
    Neumann, Sabine. "Heiligtümer des Pan in Athen und Attika." Kolloquiumsband (2016)
  • Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment of a Goat's Head|url=false|author=|year=c. 500–475 BCE|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1926.538