Art Institute of Chicago

Rhyton (Drinking Vessel) in the Shape of a Donkey Head

Attributed to the Painter of London E 55 (Manner of Douris)LinkedCulture matchlcp-1fe4eb9ad9ef

Date: 480-470 BCE
Medium: terracotta, red-figure
Culture: Athens
Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 40887

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

This drinking cup could not have been set down without its contents spilling. It is fashioned after the head of a bridled donkey with a white muzzle, teeth, and ears. Like the naked satyr chasing a fleeing maenad on the vessel’s neck, the donkey belongs to the retinue of the wine god Dionysos.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Museum Purchase Fund
Provenance: Said to be from Nola [according to Durand catalogue, 1836]. Edmé-Antoine Durand (1768-1835); sold at estate sale, Paris, April 25 - May 27, 1836. James-Alexander de Pourtalès-Gorgier (1776-1855), Paris, by 1841; sold at estate sale, Paris, February 6, 1865. Eugène Piot (1812-1890), Paris; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 27-30, 1890, lot 172, to Charles L. Hutchinson (1854-1924) and Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), Chicago; on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1890-1905; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1905.