Pitcher (Oinochoe) in the Form of a Sphinx

Place of OriginItaly. likely Canosa di Puglia

Dateabout 300 BCE

DimensionsH (to top of handle): 13 11/16 in. (34.7 cm); W (across wings): 8 1/8 in. (20.6 cm); Max Depth: 4 3/16 in. (10.6 cm)

MediumMolded earthenware with polychrome tempera

ClassificationCeramics

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

Object number

1980.1332

Not on View

DescriptionA seated sphinx faces forward, her wings spread wide and a handle arching from her back to a sharply angled trefoil spout. The rim is decorated with a painted egg-and-dot pattern, flanked by disc motifs on either side of the handle. Her brown hair falls over her shoulders, topped by a lemniscus wreath and fillet. She wears earrings and a wheel-shaped pendant with palmettes that hang from her shoulders, mirrored by a similar wheel motif painted on the handle. The main body was molded, with separately attached wings, spout, neck, and handle. Details like the hair and wreath were tooled after molding. The vessel has an open base and a sealed neck, identifying it as a non-functional piece likely intended for funerary use.

Label TextThis painted terracotta jug, shaped as a sphinx with outspread wings and trefoil spout, was crafted for display in a tomb. Made in Canosa, a center of funerary ceramic production in Hellenistic South Italy, it dates to the 3rd century BCE. Its striking features—looped handle, vivid egg-and-dot rim, ornamental discs, and painted jewelry—reflect a tradition of richly symbolic and visually dramatic tomb wares. The figure wears a lemniscus wreath, a sign of ritual or divine association, and a palmette-decorated wheel pendant. Molded as a body with separately attached wings, neck, and spout, the vase has a sealed neck and open base, reinforcing its ritual function. In Greek art, sphinxes evolved from decorative creatures into symbols of transformation and thresholds. By the fifth century BCE, they were closely linked to death, often shown abducting youths or watching over the deceased.Published ReferencesLuckner, Kurt T., The Museum Collects: Treasures by Sculptors and Craftsmen, Toledo, 1980, pp. 10-11.

"News from the world of art," Apollo, vol. 113, no. 229, March, 1981, p. 199, repr.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Toledo Museum of Art, fasc. 2, U.S.A., fasc. 20, Mainz, 1984, pl. 112, p. 28.

Exhibition History"The Museum Collects: Treasures by Sculptors and Craftsmen," Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, Dec. 1980-Jan. 1981, pp. 10-11, repr.

All creatures great and small, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1989.

"Hands On Egypt" TMA interactive family gallery, Gallery 3, Sept. 18, 1998 - Aug. 31, 2000, made possible by a grant from the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Wuilleumier, P., "Les disques de Tarente," Revue archéologique, Paris, 1932, I, pp. 26-64.

cf. Rinuy, A., F. van der Wielen, P. Hartmann and F. Schweizer, "Céramique insolite de l'Italie du Sud: les vases hellénistiques de Canosa," Geneva, XXVI, 1978.

cf. Lohmann, H. "Ein canosiner voluten Krater im Martin von Wagner Museum," Archaeologischer Anzeiger, Berlin, 1979, pp. 187-213.