South Italy, Lucania, Greek / 500–475 BCE
Pawing Bull
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Pawing Bull as sculpture (South Italy, Lucania, Greek · 500–475 BCE).
This solid-cast bronze bull is nearly intact, missing only its tail.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as bronze.
The museum's collection notes: With its head slightly lowered and right foreleg raised in a pawing motion, this robust bull seems poised for action. The pose closely resembles that of bulls on coins minted at Thurii, a Greek colony in South Italy, but the statuette seems earlier in date and could have other associations. Perhaps the bull once carried the princess Europa, for example, or battled a lion or a hero. Alternatively, it may have stood alone as a small-scale offering, representing the actual bulls sometimes sacrificed to deities.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtPawing BullOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.