Oinochoe with a Spout Shaped as an Animal Head
Unknown · Orientalising period, c. 710-670 BC
A wine jug in dark reddish brown impasto, twenty five centimetres high, whose spout has been modelled into the head of a horned animal, perhaps a monster of the imagination rather than any real beast. The body was thrown on the wheel, a technique still new in Italy at the time, while the head was shaped by hand and attached. A reddish slip covers the surface. The jug is intact. Look at the way the potter has drawn out the neck into the creature's muzzle, so that wine poured from the jug would have flowed from its open mouth.
The vase dates from the end of the eighth or the beginning of the seventh century BC, the Orientalising period, when the Etruscans were absorbing motifs from the eastern Mediterranean, including the fantastic animals of Near Eastern art. It was probably made at Cerveteri, the great Etruscan city near the coast, and according to the nineteenth century curator Adrien de Longpérier it was found at Veii, the Etruscan rival of early Rome. It came to the Louvre with the Campana collection, purchased in eighteen sixty one and allotted to the museum in eighteen sixty two.
Did You Know? The wine poured out through the mouth of a horned creature, so every guest was served by a monster.
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