Apollo and Marsyas

Unknown

15th century · Bronze, light color with dark brown lacquer · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Some of the grandest figures of their respective eras, from Lorenzo the Magnificent to Catherine the Great, were ardent collectors of ancient glyptics. Connoisseurs were well aware of the praise that the writers of antiquity had heaped on specific cameo carvers. Copies initially reached the wider public in the form of bronze replicas and, later, engravings. Inevitably, the rage for cameos entailed a certain amount of forgery and twisting of facts. This plaquette was cast after a prized carnelian, one of the gems amassed by Lorenzo de' Medici, now in the Museo Archeologico, Naples.

Artist

Unknown

Date

15th century

Medium

Bronze, light color with dark brown lacquer

Culture

Italian

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1927