{
"data": {
"id": 141487,
"accession_number": "1964.96",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton, 500\u2013700. Sasanian, Iran, 600s or Turk Shahi dynasty, Kabul, Afghanistan, 500s. Silver, with mercury gilding and glass inlays; overall: 19.1 cm (7 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1964.96",
"current_location": "102A Ancient Near East",
"title": "Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton",
"creation_date": "500\u2013700",
"creation_date_earliest": 500,
"creation_date_latest": 700,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Sasanian, Iran, 600s or Turk Shahi dynasty, Kabul, Afghanistan, 500s"
],
"technique": "silver, with mercury gilding and glass inlays",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art",
"collection": "Near Eastern Art",
"type": "Metalwork",
"measurements": "Overall: 19.1 cm (7 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.191,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "??\n50\nZWZN 3",
"inscription_translation": "50 Tetradrachms + 3 Donhams",
"inscription_remark": "Engraved in Sasanian-Pahlavi, giving the weight of the object, 50 Tetradrachms + 3 Donhams = 203 d.",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300917,
"title": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions",
"description": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1966-09-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 445786,
"title": "Masterpieces of 50 Centuries",
"description": "Masterpieces of 50 Centuries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (November 10, 1970-February 15, 1971).",
"opening_date": "1970-11-10T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 303499,
"title": "The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire",
"description": "The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire. Asia House Galleries (organizer) (January 12-March 11, 1978); The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (April 10-May 21, 1978); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 7-August 13, 1978).",
"opening_date": "1978-01-12T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309664,
"title": "Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink",
"description": "Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 26-October 9, 1983).",
"opening_date": "1983-07-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311637,
"title": "All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection",
"description": "All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 23, 1994-January 8, 1995).",
"opening_date": "1994-11-23T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Dr. Elie Borowski, Toronto, Ontario, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1964",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1964-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Inlays once filled the buffalo eye sockets, perhaps of colored glass like that still present within some petals of the disc-shaped earrings.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Recalling both Greek and Iranian traditions of head vases and rhyta (drinking horns), this unusual silver vessel combines the heads of a woman and a water buffalo. A filling hole on top and a pouring or drinking spout in front make clear its function. An inscription in Middle Persian on its back records its weight: probably 50 staters and three drachmae (close to its current weight of just over 700 grams, or about 1-1/2 pounds). The woman\u2019s flat brow, straight nose, and widely set, heavy-lidded eyes\u2014along with the sectarian mark in gold on her forehead\u2014relate to art of the Indus River Valley and Hindu Kush regions of today\u2019s Pakistan and Afghanistan. While we do not know for sure, numerous scholars have suggested that she may depict the Indian warrior goddess Durga, slayer of the buffalo demon.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60757213"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1964.96-woman-and-water-buff"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "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. 14",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n38"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Frank Chalton Francis. Fiftieth Anniversary Banquet: The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel, June 13, 1966. [Cleveland]: [The Museum], 1966.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 8-9",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/50thAnniversary/page/n17"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cGolden Anniversary Acquisition,\u201d 1966, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr1432"
},
{
"citation": "Stechow, Wolfgang. \"Cleveland's Golden Anniversary Acquisitions.\" Artnews 65, no. 5 (September 1966): 30-64.
Published as: The Goddess Dravspa
",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 35; Mentioned p. 63",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Shepherd, Dorothy G., and Joseph Ternbach. \u201cTwo Silver Rhyta.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 53, no. 8, 1966, pp. 289\u2013317.",
"page_number": "Cover, inside cover. Fig.3",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152114"
},
{
"citation": "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. 14",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n36"
},
{
"citation": "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. 6",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n26"
},
{
"citation": "Harper, Prudence Oliver. The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire. New York: Asia Society, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 68; mentioned: pl. 23, pp. 69-71",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Harper, Prudence Oliver. The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire. New York: Asia Society, 1978.",
"page_number": "pp. 69-71, no. 23.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Brentjes, Burchard, and Karin Ru\u0308hrdanz. Mittelasien, Kunst des Islam. Leipzig: Seemann, VEB, 1979.",
"page_number": "Pl. 115.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Carter, Martha L. \u201cAn Indo-Iranian Silver Rhyton in the Cleveland Museum.\u201d Artibus Asiae, vol. 41, no. 4, 1979, pp. 309\u201325.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "https://doi.org/10.2307/3249540"
},
{
"citation": "Neils, Jenifer. \u201cThe Twain Shall Meet.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326\u2013359.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 340, fig. 27",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159914"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992.",
"page_number": "Discussed and reproduced p. 16.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cha\u0302telet, Albert, and Bernard Philippe Groslier. Histoire de l'art: peinture, sculpture, architecture, arts de\u0301coratifs. [Paris]: Larousse, 1998.",
"page_number": "p. 611",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sugimura, To\u0304. Sekai bijutsu daizenshu\u0304 = New history of world art. to\u0304yo\u0304(17), to\u0304yo\u0304(17). 1999.",
"page_number": "p. 155, fig. 171",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Louis, Fran\u00e7ois. \u201cThe Hejiacun Rhyton and the Chinese Wine Horn (Gong): Intoxicating Rarities and Their Antiquarian History.\u201d Artibus Asiae, vol. 67, no. 2, 2007, pp. 201\u201342.",
"page_number": "Discussed p. 207. Fig. 9.",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25261880"
},
{
"citation": "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. 60-1",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Minardi, Michele. 2015. \"A Silver Rhyton from Afghanistan Held in the Cleveland Museum of Art and Its Historical Context,\" Journal asiatique 303.1: 59-86.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kosmin, Paul. \"Banqueting on the Move.\" In Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings.Susanne Ebbinghaus,ed., 310-341. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Art Museums, 2018.",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 333, fig. 7.25",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"Education.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 6 (November/December 2019): 24.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 24.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 54",
"url": ""
}
],
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"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": "f3553efbaea545eaba7dcb37d692022e",
"sketchfab_url": "https://sketchfab.com/models/f3553efbaea545eaba7dcb37d692022e",
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 141487,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1964-05-06T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 500,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "500\u2013700",
"collapse_artists": false,
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"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Rhyton: The Angel Drvaspa"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-09-23 15:06:15.300000"
}
}