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The sculpture is a round medallion or coin-shaped object featuring a relief scene with two people. The person on the left appears to be an elderly male, slightly hunched and with a bearded face, sitting on something indistinct and facing the left. The person on the right also appears to be male and holds an object that resembles a lyre. He faces away from the older man but turns his head towards him. Both men are nude but partially draped with fabric around their thighs. Between the two large men, there is a smaller figure, but it is hard to determine if it is a smaller human or an animal. Behind the people, there is a background element that looks like a tree with a few branches extending upward. The color of the sculpture is dark brown with a patina that obscures many details of the carving. The top of the medallion has a small circular hole.
National Gallery of Art · Sculpture
Apollo, Marsyas, and Olympus
Florentine 15th Century
- Date
- 15th century
- Medium
- bronze
- 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.)
- Classification
- Sculpture · Plaquette
- Accession number
- 1942.9.201
- Credit line
- Widener Collection
- Time span
- 1300 to 1400
- Department
- CSD
Subjects and terms
- Florentine
- classical
- mythology
- Renaissance Plaquettes
- Apollo
- Marsyas
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.
Inscription
along upper left edge of field: LAV . R . MED (Lorenzo de' Medici)[1]
Marks
Reverse bears former inventory numbers P [81] in black paint, partly illegible (Bode/Thieme 1897/1906), and 113 in white paint (Hainauer/Duveen 1908).
NGA object ID 1361. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.