Drinking Horn (Rhyton) in the Form of a Zebu

Place of OriginIran

Date200-100 BCE

Dimensions12 × 5 5/8 × 12 3/8 in. (30.5 × 14.3 × 31.4 cm)
from horizontal under hooves to horizontal of rim: 12 in. (30.5 cm)
from outer edge of rim to hooves: 16 7/8 in. (42.9 cm)
6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm)
from hooves to top of horns: 7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm)

MediumSilver with sheet gilding

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1988.23

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionA silver rhyton composed of two principal sections: a horn decorated with repousse foliate motifs and a protome of a humped bull (zebu). Decorative elements include gold sheeting applied by friction, repousse, and soldered attachments for protruding details such as horns and ears.

Label TextThis silver rhyton is an exceptional example of luxury arts of the Arsacid dynasty, who ruled the Iranian plateau and much of Western Asia during the Parthian period.The vessel’s form—a drinking horn terminating in the forepart of a humped bull (zebu)—is adorned with floral repoussé and chased motifs, combining Hellenistic and Iranian stylistic elements. Parthian silverwork reflects the cultural synthesis of the Arsacid Empire, which inherited and adapted the artistic traditions of the Seleucid and Achaemenid empires. This vessel's design and craftsmanship connect it to a group of Parthian rhyta acquired by the Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum, LACMA, and others, primarily during the 1980s.Published References"News & events: Toledo Museum acquisition," Silver, vol. 22, no. 1, Jan./Feb. 1989, p. 42, repr.

"Calendar," Burlington, vol. 131, no. 1031, Feb. 1989, p. 184, fig. 100.

Programs, The Art Institute of Chicago, Spring 1990, repr. p. 8.

"Museum acquisitions," Minerva, vol. 1, no. 2, Feb. 1990, p. 41, repr.

Knudsen, Sandra E. and Kurt T. Luckner, "Ein Graeco-persisches Rhyton in Toledo Museum of Art," Antike Welt, vol. 22, no. 2, 1991, pp. 115-118, abb. 1 & 2 fin pamphlet filel.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 45, repr. (col.).

Boardman, John, The diffusion of classical art in antiquity, London, 1994, p. 90, 392, no. 36, fig. 4.20, p. 88.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 96, repr. (col.).

Carter, Martha, Arts of the Hellenized East: Precious Metalwork and Gems of the Pre-Islamic Era, London, Thames & Hudson, 2015, p. 87, repr. (col.) fig. 2.3, pp. 86-87.

Picon, Carlos A., and Sean Hemingway eds., Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016, repr. (col.) fig. 103, p. 79. Ebbinghaus, Susanne, Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2018, pp. 316, repr. 317.

Canepa, Matthew P., “The Getty Stag Rhyton and Parthian Aristocratic Culture: New Epigraphic and Technical Discoveries,” Getty Research Journal, vol. 13, 2021, p. 24, n. 13.

Exhibition HistoryCambridge, Harvard Art Museums, Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings, September 7, 2018-January 6, 2019.