id: 124135 accession number: 1945.13 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1945.13 updated: 2020-11-14 10:01:08.503000 Sleep and Death Cista Handle, 400-375 BC. Italy, Etruscan, early 4th Century BC. Bronze; with base: 18.5 x 18.3 cm (7 5/16 x 7 3/16 in.); without base: 14 x 17.4 cm (5 1/2 x 6 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1945.13 title: Sleep and Death Cista Handle title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 400-375 BC creation date earliest: 400 creation date latest: 375 current location: 102D Pre-Roman creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, Etruscan, early 4th Century BC technique: bronze department: Greek and Roman Art collection: GR - Etruscan type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: with base: 18.5 x 18.3 cm (7 5/16 x 7 3/16 in.); without base: 14 x 17.4 cm (5 1/2 x 6 7/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum opening date: 1991-06-07T04:00:00 Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * An Exhibition of Small Bronzes of the Ancience World. The Detroit Institute of Arts (March 23-May 23, 1947)

Survey of Italian Art. Seattle Art Museum (November 8 - December 8, 1957).

Man and His World. International Fine Arts Exhibition, Expo '67, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (April 28 - October 27, 1967).

The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Nov. 16, 1988-Jan. 8, 1989); The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Feb. 9 - April 9, 1989); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (May 9-July 9, 1989). --- PROVENANCE Cortlandt F. Bishop (1870-1935) date: ?-1935 footnotes: citations: [American Art Association, Cortlandt F. Bishop Sale 11/22/1935] date: 1935-1935 footnotes: citations: Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1935-1945 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1945- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: These three figures were cast in eight separate pieces, then welded together and attached to the rectangular base. digital description: Designed for attachment to the lid of a large bronze cista, a cylindrical lidded box, these three figures probably represent Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos) holding the body of Sarpedon. A son of Zeus who helped to defend Troy from invading Greek forces, "godlike Sarpedon of the brazen helmet" fell at the hands of Patroclus, as told by Homer in Book XVI of the Iliad. Apollo then intervened to protect the body, removing it from danger and entrusting it to the two winged deities, as depicted here and in a number of other ancient artworks, Greek and Etruscan alike. If not Sarpedon, the fallen warrior could be Memnon, the son of Eos and Tithonos slain by Achilles. wall description: The Etruscans, a mysterious people who lived in northern Italy, loved Greek mythology and used it as subject matter in their works of art. The two winged figures, Sleep and Death, bend respectfully and tenderly toward their burden—Zeus's son, "godlike Sarpedon of the brazen helmet," who died on the battlefield at Troy. According to Homer's Iliad, the young prince had led a band of warriors from Lycia (in southern Turkey) to help King Priam repulse the Greek attack. Apollo, at Zeus's request, sent his winged messengers to gather the limp body, bathe and anoint it, and carry it home for burial. This bronze was once the handle of a large jewelry box called a cista. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Castellani, Alessandro, and Paul Leroi. Catalogue des objets d'art antiques du moyen-âge et de la Renaissance dépendant de la succession Alessandro Castellani. [By Paul Leroi]. 1884. page number: P. 47, No. 282, pl. VIII. url: British Museum. Catalogue of the Bronzes, Greek, Roman and Etruscan. 1899. page number: pp. 555, 55 , 642, 643, 645, 748 url: Collignon, Maxime, and Jane Ellen Harrison. Manual of Mythology, In Relation to Greek Art. London: H. Grevel & Co, 1899. page number: pp. 765ff. url: Furtwängler, Adolf. Die antiken Gemmen; Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst im klassischen Altertum. Leipzig: Gesecke & Devrient, 1900. page number: pl. XYI, 22, pl. XVII, 23 url: Lowy, Emanuel. "fur Aithiopis," Neue Jahrbucher fiir das klassische Altertum Geschichte and deutsche Literatur 33 (1914) page number: p. 81 url: Lamb, Winifred. Greek and Roman Bronzes. London: Methuen, 1929. page number: p. 188ff. url: LOUKOMSKI, George K. Art Etrusque: Etude Illustre Sur La Peinture Murale De Corneto-Tarquinia. Duchartre, 1930. page number: pls. 75, 76 url: Dedalo Vol. 13 (January-June 1933). page number: url: McClees, Helen. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1933. page number: pp. 64, 66 url: The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d. page number: N3599 url: https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16028coll9/id/11859 Wunderlich, Silvia A. "A Bronze Cista Handle." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 32, no. 4 (1945) page number: pp. 39-40 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141195 Detroit Institute of Arts. An Exhibition of Small Bronzes of the Ancient World. [DETROIT, MICHIGAN]: [DETROIT Institute OF ARTS], 1947. page number: No. 48, p. 9 url: "Art and Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Art." Archaeology 6, no. 4 (1953) page number: pp. 197 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41663172 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 18 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n19 Carter, Martha L. Classical Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961. page number: pl. 16, p. 16 url: Lee, Sherman E. "The Art Museum and Antiquity." Apollo vol. LXXVIII no. 22 (1963) page number: pp. 440-41, fig. 6 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 22 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n46 Schefold, Karl, and Ludwig Berger. Die Griechen und ihre Nachbarn. Berlin: Propyläen Verl, 1967. page number: p. 325, pl. 417 url: National Gallery of Canada, and Expo (International Exhibitions Bureau). Terre Des Hommes: Exposition Internationale Des Beaux-Arts, 28 Avril-27 Octobre 1967 = Man and His World, International Fine Arts Exhibition, Expo 67, Montreal, Canada, 28 April-27 October 1967. [Montréal]: [Expo 67], 1967. page number: No. 144, pp. 304-305 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967. page number: pl. 11 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 22 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n44 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 26 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n46 Holloway, Ross R. "Figure corazzate ed alate nell'Italia preromana," Miscellanea di studi classici in onore di Eugenio Manni (Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider, 1979). page number: pp. 1939-1944, pl. IV, Fig. 4-5. url: Bothmer, D. von. "The Death of Sarpedon," in Hyatt, Stephen L. (Ed.), The Greek Vase: Papers Based on Lectures Presented to a Symposium Held at Hudson Valley Community College at Troy, New York in April of 1979. Latham, N.Y.: The Association, 1981. page number: p. 78, note 32, fig. 84. url: Kozloff, Arielle P., David Gordon Mitten, and Suzannah Fabing. The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze. Cleveland, Ohio: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. page number: pp. 244-249 (cat. 45) url: Kozloff, Arielle P. "Bronzenstatuetten der Antke." Kunst und Antiquitaten 89 Heft I (1989). page number: pp. 30-33 url: Tassel, Janet. "Might Midgets." Harvard Magazine 91 no. 5 (May-June 1989). page number: p. 33 url: Kozloff, Arielle P. Classical Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection, the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Museum, 1989. page number: p. 10 url: Kozloff, Arielle P. "Calendar" The Burlington Magazine CXXXI, no. 1032 (March 1989). page number: p. 251 url: Young, Mahonri Sharp. “Letter from the U.S.A.: By the Tyrrhenian Sea.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 129 (January 1989), page number: p. 58, fig. 4. url: Kozloff, Arielle P. "La figure humaine dans les bronzes antiques." Archeologia 248 (July-August 1989). page number: p. 60 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 8 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n23 Cleveland Museum of Art. Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. 1991. page number: No. 4 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. page number: p. 20 url: Bothmer, Dietrich von. "Sarpedon," in Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), vol. VII. Zürich: Artemis, 1994. page number: Pp. 696-700, Cat. 15. url: Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998. page number: p. 23 url: Murphy, Darlene W. The Praenestine Cistae Handles. Dettelbach: Röll, 2001. page number: pp. 5, 131-132 (cat. 5001), 205 (pl. 35). url: May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: p. 116 url: Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. page number: p. 33 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. page number: pp. 36-7 url: Waterfield, Robin, and Kathryn Waterfield. The Greek Myths: Stories of the Greek Gods and Heroes Vividly Retold. London: Quercus, 2013. page number: p. 226. url: SCHUMACHER, KARL. Eine pranestinische ciste im museum zu karlsruhe. HANSEBOOKS, 2016. page number: url: Tortora, Phyllis G., and Sara B. Marcketti. Survey of Historic Costume. 2016. . page number: p. 44, fig. 4.3 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1945.13/1945.13_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1945.13/1945.13_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1945.13/1945.13_full.tif