5th-3rd century BC. A lead votive bull's head, or Bucranium, with gold pupils on the eyes, horns rising up with ears to either side. 1.4 kg, 23cm (9"). The property of a German gentleman; acquired 1980s-early 1990s. Bucranium, meaning skull of an ox, was a common form of carved decoration in Classical architecture used to fill the metopes between the triglyphs of the frieze of Doric temples. A bas-relief or painted décoration consisting of a series of bucrania draped or decorated with garlands of fruit or flowers was a Roman motif drawn from marble altars, which have survived in some number; the motif was also later used on Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical buildings. The name is generally considered to be a reference to the practice of garlanding sacrificial oxen, the heads of which were displayed on the walls of the temples.

Fair condition.