id:			110236
accession number:	1928.858
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1928.858
updated:		2023-03-04 09:29:42.445000

Head of a Sphinx, 540–520 BC. Greece, Archaic period, 6th century BC. Marble; overall: 27 x 20.5 x 26.3 cm (10 5/8 x 8 1/16 x 10 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1928.858

title:				Head of a Sphinx
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			540–520 BC
creation date earliest:		-540
creation date latest:		-520
current location:		102B Greek
creditline:			Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
copyright:			

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culture:	Greece, Archaic period, 6th century BC
technique:	marble
department:	Greek and Roman Art
collection:	GR - Greek
type:		Sculpture
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Overall: 27 x 20.5 x 26.3 cm (10 5/8 x 8 1/16 x 10 3/8 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

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fun fact:


digital description:


wall description:
This female head once belonged to a sphinx, a mythological hybrid creature with the head of a woman and body of a winged lion. Her short cylindrical crown, known as a <em>polos,</em> helps to identify her as a sphinx, as does the slope of her hair and neck, which once continued onto a feline body. Also common in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern art (though more often in male form), the sphinx is best known in Greek mythology for devouring passersby who could not answer her riddle outside the Boiotian city of Thebes. Stone sphinxes like this one served as both votive offerings and grave monuments in Archaic Greece.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
	page number: 	Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 12
	url:		https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n18

	Carter, Martha L. <em>Classical Art.</em> Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.
	page number: 	Mentioned and reproduced: p. 2. Plate 3
	url:		https://archive.org/details/ClassicalArt/page/n5

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1928.858/1928.858_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1928.858/1928.858_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1928.858/1928.858_full.tif