Apollo, Marsyas, and Olympus

15th century

Florentine 15th Century

Associated Names
Florentine 15th Century

Artist

The sculpture is a round medallion featuring a relief scene with two human figures. The figure on the left appears to be an elderly male, slightly hunched and with a bearded face, sitting on something indistinct. The figure on the right also appears to be male. They face away from the other figure, but turn their head towards them, and hold an object that resembles a lyre. Both figures are nude but partially draped with fabric. Between the two large figures, there is a smaller figure, but it is hard to determine if it is a smaller human or an animal. Behind the figures, there is a background element that looks like a tree with a few branches extending. The color of the sculpture is a dark brown with a patina that obscures many details of the carving. The top of the medallion has a small circular hole.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (oval): 4.24 x 3.62 cm (1 11/16 x 1 7/16 in.)
    gross weight: 21.57 gr (0.048 lb.)

  • Accession Number

    1942.9.201

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Oscar Hainauer [d. 1894], Berlin; his wife, Julie Hainauer, Berlin; acquired 1906 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); by exchange 21 October 1920 to Joseph E. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1897

  • Bode, Wilhelm von, ed. Die Sammlung Oscar Hainauer / The Collection of Oscar Hainauer. [bound as one volume, English and German pages interleaved in one page sequence] Berlin, 1897 and London, 1906: 96, no. 221 (plaquette no. 81), as Italian, after the antique, c. 1500.

1908

  • A Cabinet of One Hundred & Thirty-Three Bronze Plaques and Medals of the Renaissance Period from the Collection of the Late Herr Oscar Hainauer of Berlin. Ed. Duveen Brothers. London, n.d. (but 1908): no. 113, repro.

1931

  • Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection. Reliefs and Plaquettes. Oxford, 1931: 29, no. 24, variation no. 5.

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 15.

1975

  • Wixom, Wililam D. _ Renaissance Bronzes from Ohio Collections_. Exh. cat. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1975: nos. 25-26.

2011

  • Rossi, Francesco. La collezione Mario Scaglia: placchette. 3 vols. Bergamo, 2011: 1:30, under Variante B, M.37; 31, under Variante D, C.40, as Roman, mid-fifteenth centur, and as part of the Hainauer Collection.

2012

  • Flaten, Arne R. Medals and Plaquettes in the Ulrich Middeldorf Collection at the Indiana University Art Museum. Bloomington, 2012: 10 fig. 14.

Inscriptions

along upper left edge of field: LAV . R . MED (Lorenzo de' Medici)[1]

Markings

Reverse bears former inventory numbers P [81] in black paint, partly illegible (Bode/Thieme 1897/1906), and 113 in white paint (Hainauer/Duveen 1908).

Wikidata ID

Q63809376

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