The Flaying of Marsyas
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brown and red washes, heightened with white paint (or gouache), on paper prepared with red washes
Dimensions
{"sheet":{"height":0.211,"width":0.315}}
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2018.26
Tags
About this artwork
In this gruesome mythological scene, Apollo begins to flay, or peel the skin off, the satyr Marsyas as punishment for his arrogant challenge in a musical contest. The surrounding Olympian gods show reactions ranging from horror to fascination. The artist Johannes Stradanus helped found the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (Academy of the Arts of Drawing) in Florence in 1563, which instituted a course of training for artists that included observing a human dissection. In making this image, Strada...