id: 147928 accession number: 1974.3 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.3 updated: 2023-08-23 22:29:15.054000 Ibis Eating a Lizard, 100 BC–AD 100. Italy, Rome, Roman Empire. Bronze, hollow cast; overall: 37.5 cm (14 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1974.3 title: Ibis Eating a Lizard title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 100 BC–AD 100 creation date earliest: -100 creation date latest: 100 current location: 103 Roman creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, Rome, Roman Empire technique: bronze, hollow cast department: Greek and Roman Art collection: GR - Roman type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 37.5 cm (14 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1974 opening date: 1975-03-11T04:00:00 Year in Review: 1974. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-April 6, 1975). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA, 11 March-6 April 1975, The Year in Review for 1974, cat.: CMA Bulletin 62, no. 3 (March 1975), no. 6, illus. p. 65 --- PROVENANCE Perhaps Alexandria. date: footnotes: citations: Purchased from Mohammed Yeganeh, Frankfurt date: 1974 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1974- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This sculpture was possibly used as a support for furniture, a candelabrum, or an incense burner. digital description: The ibis is an Egyptian bird, shown here standing firmly on both legs with a lizard in its beak. The bird rests on a two-tiered circular base, and a vertical stem with incised decoration extends above the ibis’s head. While an Egyptian animal, the image of the ibis devouring a lizard became common only in the Roman world, depicted in wall paintings and seen on Barbotine ware, a type of pottery. This sculpture may be unique, however, in showing this motif in the round. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Kozloff, Arielle P. "A Bronze Menagerie." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 3 (1976): 75-88. page number: pp. 80-82 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152628 Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 page number: Reproduced: p. 482; Mentioned: p. 482-3 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1974.3/1974.3_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1974.3/1974.3_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1974.3/1974.3_full.tif