Collection record · Objects & craft
Apollo and Marsyas
The collection record classifies this work as sculpture. It is dated c. 1468. Recorded culture or place: Italy.
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Apollo and Marsyas
- Date
- c. 1468
- Culture / origin
- Italy
- Materials and technique
- bronze
- Dimensions
- Overall: 4.1 x 3.4 x 0.4 cm (1 5/8 x 1 5/16 x 3/16 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Cristoforo di Geremia (Italian, active 1456–76)
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1969.261
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
This plaquette is based on an important 1st-century gem attributed to Diskourides that passed into the Medici collection in the 1400s. The antique carnelian stone was so popular that the design was copied in numerous variations and media. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Marsyas challenged Apollo to a music contest: his flute versus the god's lyre. As punishment for Marsyas's hubris, Apollo bound him to a tree and had his skin flayed. In the middle of the composition is the diminutive Olympus, Marsyas's student, begging Apollo for mercy. While the exact function of this plaquette is not clear, the subject had significance for political and noble figures in the Renaissance. The lyre symbolized peace, and thus the victory of Apollo's lyre stood for the triumph of universal harmony. When Pope Paul II Barbo (1417–1471) commissioned a portrait medal in 1468, the reverse included this same image, making the connection between his papacy and the new "Peace of Italy."
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of the John B. Putnam Foundation · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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