Apollo and Marsyas

Vicentino, Niccolò (active ca. 1540-1550)

Carpi, Ugo da (active 1502-1532) (formerly attributed to)

Parmigianino (1503-1540) (after a work of)

Item type:

print

Date of creation:

1525-1530

Height:

20.3 cm  (8 in.)

Width:

14.3 cm  (5 5/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

chiaroscuro woodcut from four blocks

Place of creation:

Italia

Description

Apollo plays the lira da braccio (similar to a violin) in a musical contest with the satyr, Marsyas, who is holding an aulos. Apollo stands majestically on the left with the lira held aloft by his left hand with the instrument resting under his chin. His right arm is extended outward to his right holding the bow in his hand. Apollo is not clothed, but a bow and quiver of arrows are strapped to his back. Marsyas is seated slumped on a rock with both hooves barely touching the ground, his right hand holding his right knee and his left arm holding the aulos.

Iconclass

92B3412
contest between Apollo and Marsyas

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Aulos [4173]
Lira da braccio [3181]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Takahatake, Naoko, Jonathan Bober, Jamie Gabbarelli, Antony Griffiths, Peter Parshall, and Linda Stiber Morenus. The chiaroscuro woodcut in Renaissance Italy (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2018) 136–39, no. 46. ISBN: 9783791357393.

Barryte, Bernard. Myth, allegory, and faith: The Kirk Edward Long Collection of Mannerist prints (Stanford, CA: Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, 2015) app. 228. ISBN: 9788836630882.

Ugo da Carpi, l'opera incisa: xilografie e chiaroscuri da Tiziano, Raffaello e Parmigianino, ed. by Manuela Kahn-Rossi. ([Carpi]: Città di Carpi, 2009) 156, no. 34.

Trotter, William H. Chiaroscuro woodcuts of the circles of Raphael and Parmigianino:
a study in reproductive graphics (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1974) 228-31.

Rodari, Florian and Chantal Oederlin. Dieux et héros: 7 avril-1er octobre 1978, Cabinet des estampes, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Genève (Genève: Musée d'art et d'histoire, 1978) no. 35.

RIdIM record id

5443