Plate with a Hunting Dog

Place of OriginGreece, reportedly from Camirus (Rhodes)

Date560-540 BCE

Dimensions11 × 11 × 3/8 in. (27.9 × 27.9 × 1 cm)

MediumWheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware.

ClassificationCeramics

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

Object number

1932.2

On View

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

DescriptionThis shallow, pale clay plate has a slightly raised rim and is decorated in black glaze, with some areas turned red in firing. At the center, a hound walks to the right on a narrow ground line. Surrounding it are bold geometric patterns, including a fan-like arrangement of black and unpainted "tongues" and a band of meanders. Five short stroke groups decorate the rim. The underside is left unglazed, with five concentric circles incised near the edge and center. Two small rim losses have been restored and painted to match.

Label TextThis plate, decorated with a striding hound above a fan of tongue-shaped motifs, is part of a distinct class of Archaic Greek ceramics known as East Dorian plates. Characterized by a flat base, slightly raised “sofa” rim, and full interior decoration, these plates usually feature large animal figures in silhouette. Once attributed to Rhodes, new scientific methods—especially neutron activation analysis (NAA)—have shown that many of these vessels were actually produced on the island of Kos, particularly near Halasarna, and exported widely across the Mediterranean.Published ReferencesKardara, Chrysoula P., Ροδιακή αγγειογραφία, Athens, Archaeological Society at Athens, 1963, pp. 290–291, 308, and fig. 285.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, fasc. 2, U.S.A. fasc. 20, Mainz, 1984, pl. 38,2.

Comparative Referencescf. Walter-Karydi, Elena, Samische Gefäße des 6. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.: Landschaftsstile ostgriechischer Gefäße, Bonn, Habelt, 1973, pp. 89–95.

cf. Cook, Robert M., and Pierre Dupont, East Greek Pottery, London and New York, Routledge, 1998, pp. 61–63.

cf. Filimonos-Tsopotou, Melina, “East Dorian Plates from Nisyros,” in Nicholas Chr. Stampolidis, Yorgos Tassoulas, and Melina Filimonos-Tsopotou (eds.), Islands off the Beaten Track: An Archaeological Journey to the Greek Islands of Kastellorizo, Symi, Halki, Tilos and Nisyros, Athens, Museum of Cycladic Art, 2011, pp. 367–370 (nos. 47–50), 373 (no. 56), and 375 (no. 60).

cf. Coulié, Anne, La céramique de la Grèce de l'Est: le style des chèvres sauvages: la collection du musée du Louvre, Montreuil, Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2014, pp. 184–185.

cf. Villing, Alexandra, and Hans Mommsen, “Rhodes and Kos: East Dorian Pottery Production of the Archaic Period,” Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 112, 2017, pp. 99–154.