Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos
Giovanni Maria Mosca (Italian, 1495/99–1574)
c. 1510–1515
Medium
marble
Dimensions
29 × 23 × 8.5 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1973.168
Tags
male
About this artwork
A snake bit the Greek warrior Philoctetes en route to the Trojan War. The stench of the infected wound led the ship’s crew to abandon him on the island of Lemnos, where he fans the agonizing injury with a bird’s wing. The warrior’s noble suffering in the face of tremendous pain would have been a classical model of stoic composure, highly valued in Renaissance court culture.