The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Frog-Shaped Guttus (Oil Flask)

Frog-Shaped Guttus (Oil Flask)

300s BCE
ceramic
Diameter: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.); Overall: 5.8 x 11.2 x 9.1 cm (2 5/16 x 4 7/16 x 3 9/16 in.)
Gift of Keith P. Smith 1985.176
Location: 102D Pre-Roman

Did You Know?

The philosopher Plato famously compared the Greeks living along Mediterranean coastlines to “frogs around a pond.”

Description

Guttus is a Latin word referring to a small vessel with vertical spout and ring handle, probably used for pouring small amounts of precious liquids. Often, mold-made ceramic gutti take the form of animals, with realistic painted decoration. Here, the lifelike frog features black stripes and alternating black and white circles.
  • ?-1985
    Keith P. Smith, Bath, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1985-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 1002931 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Kozloff, Arielle P. "Two South Italian Vases: Fish Plate and Frog Bottle." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 10 (1986): 406-14. Figs. 8-10. 25159967.
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1985." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (1986) p. 62, no. 9 www.jstor.org
    Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. p. 55, pl. 100.4-5
    Le sanglier et le satyre: vases plastiques hellénistiques de Grande Grèce et de Sicile. Kilchberg/Zürich: Akanthus, 2015. Mentioned: P. 116, no A339
  • {{cite web|title=Frog-Shaped Guttus (Oil Flask)|url=false|author=|year=300s BCE|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.176