Minoan bull and acrobat
- Audio guide stop: 222
- Gallery: Room 12
- Culture: Late Minoan I
- Date: 1600BC-1450BC
- Object type: figure
- Materials: bronze
- Museum number: 1966,0328.1
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you stands a striking Bronze Group of a Bull and Acrobat from the Late Minoan I period, dated around 1600 to 1450 BC. This bronze figure shows an acrobat somersaulting over the head of a bull, cast as a single piece using the lost wax method. The figure’s arms end in stumps, and the lower legs are missing, leaving us to wonder whether this was part of the original design or the result of a casting flaw.
This artwork was created in Crete during a time when bull-leaping was a significant cultural and possibly ritual activity. Though the practice is not fully understood today, it may have had deep symbolic or religious meaning. The sculpture represents one of the few complete examples of bull-leaping in bronze from this period.
It was acquired in Rethymnon and entered the collection via the influential collector Capt. Spencer-Churchill in 1921. After his death in 1964, it was eventually added to the British Museum in 1966. Notable scholar Sir Arthur Evans studied it, linking it to early Minoan depictions of bull-leaping found at Knossos.
Take a moment to admire the dynamic movement and craftsmanship that this small but powerful figure conveys.
See it in person
Minoan bull and acrobat is on display in Room 12 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 222, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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