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The nude bodies of two men are carved from white marble in high relief against a flat placquard with the curving contours of a bean. The bearded man to our left faces our left almost in profile as he sits on a rock or grassy knoll. His hands are tied behind his back and perhaps around a tree growing just behind him. His head bows forward. The other man is clean-shaven and stands to our right. He holds an object down by his side, and stands with most of his weight on his left leg, to our right, so that hip sways in that direction. His body is angled to our right, but he looks back over his shoulder at the other man. The right edge of the background curves inward, and the rest of the perimeter is rounded.
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The nude bodies of two men are carved from white marble in high relief against a flat placquard with the curving contours of a bean. The bearded man to our left faces our left almost in profile as he sits on a rock or grassy knoll. His hands are tied behind his back and perhaps around a tree growing just behind him. His head bows forward. The other man is clean-shaven and stands to our right. He holds an object down by his side, and stands with most of his weight on his left leg, to our right, so that hip sways in that direction. His body is angled to our right, but he looks back over his shoulder at the other man. The right edge of the background curves inward, and the rest of the perimeter is rounded.

National Gallery of Art · Sculpture

Apollo and Marsyas

Follower of Michelangelo, after the Antique

Date
c. 1495/1535
Medium
marble
Dimensions
overall: 41.2 × 32.07 × 8.57 cm (16 1/4 × 12 5/8 × 3 3/8 in.)
Classification
Sculpture · Relief
Accession number
1961.1.5
Credit line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Time span
1401 to 1500
Department
CSD
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • Florentine
  • European Sculpture 1300-1800
  • classical
  • mythology
  • Renaissance
  • Apollo and Marsyas
Provenance

Possibly Bartolomeo Cavaceppi [c. 1716-1799], Rome.[1] Outside wall of a house on the Lungarno delle Grazie, Florence; acquired from there by Baron Reinhold von Liphart, Dorpat and Munich-Grafeling, by 1891;[2] on consignment from September 1947 with (Paul Drey, New York);[3] sold 1948 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1961 to NGA. [1] Johann Joachim Winckelmann, _History of Ancient Art_, translated by Alexander Gode, New York, 1969[1764]: 258. [2] The sculpture had been discovered in Florence by Liphart's grandfather, Karl Eduard von Liphart (1808-1891), and the grandson's acquisition of the sculpture is described by Wilhelm von Bode, "Eine Marmorkopie Michelangelos nach dem antiken Cameo mit Apollo und Marsyas," _Jahrbuch des preussischen Kunstsammlungen_ 12 (1891): 167. Liphart is also listed as the owner in _Amtliche Berichte aus den Königlichen Kunst Sammlungen_, 1 July 1891: IV, no. 3, and he is cited as the lender of the sculpture in the catalogue of a 1935 exhibition at the Drey galleries in New York. [3] A statement by Drey in the dealer's prospectus for the sculpture (in NGA curatorial files) states that it had been "continuously" in his custody from the time it was shipped to New York in 1935 for exhibition, but that the "official permit for sale" was granted in September 1947. Charles de Tolnay's 1943 book, _The Youth of Michelangelo_ (vol. 1 of 5, Princeton, pp. 233-234), lists the sculpture as with a New York dealer at that time, but a note in Drey's prospectus specifically refutes this fact, indicating the sculpture belonged to von Liphart.

NGA object ID 46085. 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.